


Touch of the Past

by TheAnimeWriterLover



Category: Class of the Titans, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Angst, As best as I can at least, Drama & Romance, F/M, Family, Family Drama, Female Harry Potter, Greek Gods and Goddesses being portrait realistically, Harry is Rhea, Memories regained early on, Might Add Omakes Later, My take on the Greek Myths and Legends, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Reincarnation, Teddy is in the story!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2018-11-21 07:10:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 42,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11352432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAnimeWriterLover/pseuds/TheAnimeWriterLover
Summary: Having gone into depression, Rhea could no longer live in peace. Given a chance, she reincarnated into a witch, by the name of Heather Potter. She no longer remembered anything, until a condition has been met. Now, her husband Cronus was on the loose. Her children, the Greek Gods, try to keep her safe. It won’t be long before Cronus sought out his wife. Yet, not everything was as it seemed.





	1. Chapter 1

_A tall woman stood next to a glassless window. Her brilliant emerald eyes looked down at the mortals with a tired expression. The morals worked on their agriculture after her youngest gifted it to them. The images of their happy and blessed selves were now nothing more than a memory. No longer would they be in the presence of the Titans and Godlings. No longer would food appear for them whenever they were hungry. No longer would there be any need for laws and justice, because they were too happy to committee a crime._

_It was as if the world has turned upside down. It did, in a way, years ago._

_The woman shook her head in disappointments. Her children have achieved much, but they still had much growing to do. The way they treated each other and the mortals left much to desire. She had an idea of where such attitude came from, but was skeptic at the thought. Yet, that same thought made her sigh in sadness, a second later._

_The woman walked away from the window. She made her way to a golden bowl filled with water. Even though she tried to, the woman couldn’t stop the annoyed look that made to her face at the sight of the bowl. As a mother, she loves her children with her whole being. Yet, there was a moment when the feeling of annoyance fought its way to the surface. For a woman that didn’t care for expensive or grand things, her children thought otherwise. At least her parents, siblings and husband got the message and didn’t get her such things. What use could there be for a golden bowl, when one made out of clay could do a fine job?_

_With a sigh, this woman tried to push the negative thoughts away. Today was not her day. Not even after attending to her lions have lightened up her mood. She shouldn’t have left her bed after all._

_The brown headed woman looked into the water at her reflection. Her brilliant emerald eyes were no longer bright, but instead dull. The skin on her face has sunken in a bit, from the lack of want for food. Her curly brown hair no longer shined, but rested on her head in a mess and lifeless form. Her lips drew in a firm line at the image, before she sighed. With slight shakiness, her hands cooped up the water before splashing it on her face. A sigh of relief escaped her as she rubbed the back of her neck and made her way to sit down on her long couch._

_She was tired of everything. Life has not been kind to her family, no thanks to her monstrous father. It appeared that his curse lived on, among many others that were never spoken or known. This got her thinking of something. That line of thinking was the reason behind her sleepless nights. What if her father has gone the extra mile, and also cursed everyone else, not only her husband? What if on top of the known curse, he chanted many more? It would make sense and brought to light a lot of things. One of them could explain the odd behaviour behind her husband’s._

_As she thought about it, there was knocking at the door. A confused frown was thrown to its direction._ Who can it be? No humans come here. The kids, as far as I know, are too busy doing their own things. Oh, I hope it’s not Zeus with another baby. _She resisted the urge to sigh again. She has been doing that a lot, hasn’t she? Without a word, she got up and opened the door. Her eyes widened in surprise._

-ooOOoo-

You know, you would think that after the Second Wizarding War, everything would go back to normal. Well, it did, unless one was Heather Lily Potter. Of course she couldn’t catch a break. For the Saviour of the Wizarding World, Girl-Who-Lived now Woman-Who-Lived, with a few other titles, nothing was that simple. Oh no. Heck, her friends even thought up of a reason behind her Potter luck. Ron pointed out that it could be that an ancestor of hers pissed off the wrong person or being and got cursed. Hermione scuffed at the explanation. Heather thought about it and decided that it made a lot of sense. Why else would she have to go through a hell on Earth? Only for it to be her maternal family, ‘adventures’ in Hogwarts and the loss of those that were close to her?

_Sigh_

Well, at least she has her friends, the Weasley family and Teddy. Out of all them, it was her Godson that kept her from hexing every moving target- ahem, reporter or politician. Heather thought that they were bad from her Hogwarts years, but it was nothing compared to after the war. No thanks to them, she couldn’t go finish her last year of school. Instead, she had to be under lock and key with nothing but books, Winky and Teddy for company. Behind her bedchamber doors, she could add weird dreams and nightmares of the war onto the list. But, she had to go far to keep her and Teddy safe, while also to keep the reporters and politicians out. This was done in three ways. Disconnect the Floo Network of her fireplace. Have Hermione put in runes to stop people from getting into her home in any way shape or form. And put on the Fidelius Charm, with her as the Secret Keeper.

Today was a miracle, Heather decided.

Even though she had to leave the house to get some business done, she was not bothered once. Sure, people stared at her, but they didn’t bother her. Not even those damn reporters appeared to take pictures of her or ask her personal questions. And no auror appeared to escort her to the Ministry of Magic to talk with the politicians. It may have to do with it being New Years’ today. One step away from the war. One step closer to the future. At least, that was what they said nowadays.

This New Years’ was to be celebrated at the Weasley’s new house. After their old one was destroyed during the war, Heather got them a new, bigger but still modest house. They refused, saying that they could get a new one. The new one wouldn’t be as big, but they would try and work with it. Yet, the black headed young woman didn’t have any of that. They were the family that she always wanted. They laughed, comforted, cried and fought together through a lot. For the young witch, this gift didn’t cover how thankful she was of the red headed family. They took her in when she was a confused and scared orphan that was thrusted into a world that she knew nothing of. Heck, to prove further how grateful she was, she opened a few bank accounts filled with money. These bank accounts were divided between the Weasley family, friends and Teddy to use. She had too much money that sat around collecting dust. May as well use the money.

So there Heather was, late at night in the new Weasley Manor. An eight month old Teddy slept in her arms. The noise didn’t bother him one bit. She was glad for that, because the last Potter didn’t plan to let him go any time soon. She hadn’t been able to do so for months, after the brutal murder of his grandmother, Andromeda. If Heather didn’t get there in time, he would have died as well by the hands of the leftover Death Eaters. Even though she no longer wanted to be an auror, her skills still beat those Death Eaters black and blue until reinforcements arrived. If they didn’t, she may have killed them. They took away Teddy's grandmother and almost killed him too.

Shaking her head, the Woman-Who-Lived paid attention to her best friends' conversation. Heather was happy that they decided to come for the party. She hasn’t seen them for a few months, and it was not the same when they wrote letters. Hermione has decided to go finish off her last year of Hogwarts. Ron didn’t want to do that, so instead head started on his career and entered the Auror Program. That program asked of the new recruits to stay in a boarding house. It was so that the new recruits learned how to work with each other in an easier and faster way. It was only when the recruits passed the final exam would they be allowed to live somewhere else.

The war has been hard on all three of them, but in different ways. Heather lost many loved ones and died herself, once. Ron and Hermione have both lost loved ones and whatever leftover innocence and naïve that they had. Due to that, they chose to go down their own roads. Hermione studied harder than ever to get into the Law Department at the Ministry. Ron wanted to protect his family and friends, rather than sit around and read books. So he used his newfound political power from being a War Hero and got into the program. He used whatever free time that he had study hard in the needed subjects for the program. What surprised Heather was that Hermione approved, rather than drag Ron to Hogwarts. Heather, well… she decided to become something like Hagrid. She wanted to work with animals, both magical and non-magical. They brought her peace when she had her PTSD moments. Her best friends, after they found out the reason, supported her 100 percent. They, themselves, understood as they went through the same thing.

Leaning against the chair in relaxation, Heather rubbed Teddy’s back with her thumb. Her emerald eyes looked up at the clock and saw that it was 11 PM. 1 hour to go.

“Still can’t believe Malfoy was let go.”

Ron grumbled in annoyance. It was due to when he heard from his girlfriend that the blond also returned for his last year.

“Ron, it was Malfoy senior that was the real problem, and he’s behind bars for life. Malfoy has changed a lot after the war. He’s not calling me a Mudblood or anything anymore.” Hermione countered his comment with thoughtfulness. Her brown eyes stared at the air as she remembered the last few months. “He has kept to himself for the most part.”

“I still don’t trust that ferret.”

“I have to agree with Ron on this,” Heather added in with carefulness. She was right to do so, since Hermione threw to her a look of disbelief. Before she could protest, the witch continued. “but I have to agree with you too, Mione. His mother has helped us during the war. And this war has changed a lot of people. I mean, look at us. We’re not the same as we were a year ago. It’s not that hard to believe that Malfoy changed. It’s… I don’t know how much we should trust him. We could trust him as an ally, but not as a friend.”

“Of course not as a friend! Bloody-” Ron stopped when he received a pair of glares. He gulped, not wanting to be hexed by cursing in front of a child by accident. He corrected himself, “I will not accept him as a friend, but you are right. We can keep an eye on him, but he can be a useful ally.”

The young women watched him with shock awe. They leaned closed to one another and whispered not too quietly.

“Did he just say that he’ll consider _Malfoy_ as an _ally_?”

“I _know_. I think our dear Ron is growing up.”

“Hey!”

The red head protested at their comments with a mock offended look. This caused the two young women to burst into laughter. When they calmed down a bit and looked at the only guy of the group, they resumed their laughter to the point of tears. Ron tried to appear that he sulked in his seat with his arms crossed over his chest. Yet, it failed as there was a twitch in the corner of his lips.

Once the young women calmed down, the trio realized that the laughter woke up someone. A small whine escaped Teddy at being woken up from his sleep. He calmed down when his godmother slash mother figure rubbed his back. A pacifier was given to him, to which he sucked on with no protest. The couple watched their friend in silence until the baby boy calmed down. When he did, Ron asked her:

“How are you and Teddy doing?”

“We’re doing fine.”

Heather answered back in half-truth. Her eyes looked at them with tiresome. She received looks mixed with skepticism and worrisome. Hermione lectured her:

“Heather Lily Potter, don’t lie to us. How many times do we need to remind you that ‘fine’ is not an answer?”

The black headed witch gave the other one a look. It was received with a look of warning. She bit back a sigh but answered:

“It’s… it’s tough. I still have a lot of nightmares from the war. I also still have those weird dreams. Then I have to take care of Teddy while I’m studying, and it doesn’t help that he’s starting to crawl everywhere now. He sometimes has nightmares. I can only guess they are of Andromeda’s murder. And I’m also cooped up in Sirius’ house, which brings back even more memories.” Heather paused for a moment before she explained a bit more in a rushing manner, when she realized how she must sound to her friends. “I mean, I am happy to have Teddy with me. I’m not as depressed as I used to be, before I had him. Winky also helps a lot, with the cleaning and we’re checking for any and all dark objects. I-It’s just…”

“You’re tired”

Hermione answered for her, now looking as worried as her boyfriend did. Ron breathed out in disbelief.

“Blimey, Heather, if you told us, we would have been there for you. You know that my mom would love to look after Teddy for a bit, for you to catch some sleep. We could have even come over the weekends to help you with the house or to hang out.”

“That’s why I didn’t say anything.” Heather protested. “All of you have your own things to do, your own problems.”

“But Heather-”

“No Hermione, you know that I’m right. You don’t just have your NEWT exams to study for. You also need to focus on getting into the faculty that you want. And Ron just doesn’t have time with the program. And everyone else either has their own things to do or still try to recover from the war. Yes, it’s hard for me, but I’ll live through this. I have been through much worse. Merlin, Tom has been the worst thing that I’ve had to face. Looking after a baby, studying and cleaning a house are nothing. I just need to get used to it.”

Heather smiled at them in assurance, but her friends didn’t buy it. Still, they didn’t argue. All three of them were stubborn, but the Woman-Who-Lived took the crown if they competed. Ron decided to change the subject to something that bothered him.

“Heather, you said that you still have those weird dreams of yours. Have they changed much?”

Hermione nodded in agreement, wanting to know as well. She has been the first to discover those dreams, in their second year as they roomed together. It took a lot of convincing from her end, to have Heather agree to tell Ron about these dreams. He was the only one that grew up in the Wizarding World. For all they knew, it must make sense on some level to him. But it didn’t. To this day, it still puzzled the Golden Trio.

Heather thought about the most recent dream. She voiced out her thoughts:

“Yes… and no? I mean, they are almost the same. But I had a recent dream that was a bit different.” The two nudged their heads for her in encouragement to continue. “It’s still the same woman. She was in the same stone house and everything. She looked a bit different, more tired, skinner, and a bit… sick, I guess? But that’s not what I find different. What I find different are her thoughts and the dream went a different direction.”

“When you mean that her thoughts were different…”

Hermione asked of her, to which she was answered with a nod.

“They are more depressed, almost in a… snappy kind of way, I guess?” At this Heather frowned. She looked down at Teddy, who closed his eyes and appeared to have gone back to sleep. The only difference this time was that he had a handful of her shirt in his small fist. She relaxed a bit when she saw that he went back to sleep. “She always appears gentle, so full of love and care, so I was surprised to see her like that.”

“Well, when one is depressed, they tend to change.”

Ron voiced out something that he learned at the program. Funny enough, the Auror Program had all kinds of classes, like Psychology, for the recruits to take. Heather nodded in agreement.

“Yes. She snapped at something as simple as a golden bowl, which was given to her by her children.”

“That… is odd.”

Hermione blinked in confusion.

“Yeah, and she continued to call people humans. I heard her thoughts mention that her son has ‘gifted the humans’ agriculture. And she mentioned the name of Zeus, hoping that he didn’t bring another ‘baby’.”

There was heavy silence between the Golden Trio, as the couple stared at her in shock. Ron was the one that voiced in surprise:

“Heather, I hope you’re not talking about Zeus as the King of the Gods.”

“I don’t know!” She snapped at him, not meaning to. Just the sleepless nights started to get to her. “I’m telling you what I heard. And she mentioned her father and curses. She was thinking of someone else, too, but didn’t mention them by name. She was really sad and skeptical about something related to those three things. The last thing I remember was her opening a door, before I woke up.”

The red headed wizard took no mind in her snapping. He had seen her do much worse. Instead, he looked at her with a look of wonder. Heather got to admit one thing. Being in a relationship with Hermione and gone through war has sharpened his mind, which was scary sometimes. That same girlfriend cupped her chin and thought out loud about what they were just told.

“I think Ron is right, saying that she was talking about Zeus as in the one from Greek mythology. You mention that he was her son, which could only mean that you’re dreaming of Rhea, the mother of the Greek Gods. If we go in this line of thinking, then her ‘father’ is Ouranos. I don’t know of any curses. But, if I’m guessing right, then she must be talking about his warning of his son’s children overthrowing him. Like how he overthrew his father. Ouranos’ son that overthrew him was Cronus, who she must be thinking of.”

“Woh, woh, woh. Hold it right there. Dear Merlin- Mione, how do you know all of this stuff?”

Ron stopped his girlfriend as he stared at her with wide eyes. She scoffed at him.

“I’ll let you know that when I was in primary school we talked a bit about Greek mythology. I just took a book from a library for some light reading to know more.”

Ron and Heather gave each other the look ‘of course’. Why did they bother question her intelligence and resources? It was always the same- to-the-library! Merlin, they almost missed those days. Those same days when they had mysteries to solve which resulted in almost death. Yeah, no, they didn’t miss them, if they thought about them this way. The female of the two voiced out what they all were thinking:

“If it’s true, then why am I dreaming of her?”

That was a real brain scratcher, to which Ron made a point by doing. Not even a moment later, Ginny, Ron’s younger sister, showed up with a big grin.

“What are you three doing sitting around? It’s almost time for the toast!”

“You’re not going to actually drink Firewhisky, are you?”

Ron eyed her as he asked. He didn’t like the idea at all. His sister rolled her eyes at him.

“So what if I am? It’s just a small glass-”

“It’s too strong for you-”

“You’re starting to sound like mom!”

“Well, you just turned 17!”

Both Hermione and Heather sighed as they watched the two siblings bicker back and forth. The two witches got up and left to where the rest of the guests and Weasley family were. The godmother placed a quick silent spell on her godson, so that he wouldn’t be woken up by the rising noises. She didn’t want him to cry on his first New Years’. While the Brightest Witch of the Century talked with some of the guests, the Woman-Who-Lived watched the clock.

_11:59_

“Okay everyone! 10 seconds until midnight!”

Someone shouted over the crowd, which made everyone turn to the clock with excitement. They all chanted at once.

“10!”

“9!”

“8!”

“7!”

“6!”

“5!”

“4!”

“3!”

“2!”

“1!”

George brought out some fireworks.

“Happy New Years!”

_Pop!_

The fireworks went off.

“George Weasley!-”

Molly started to lecture her son. Everyone else continued to cheer and drank their preferred drinks. Then, something odd happened. Heather watched in confusion and horror as everyone around her stopped moving. They stood like statues, frozen in time. When she looked at the clock, she saw that the thin hand that struck 12 has gone back a second and stayed like that. A feeling started to rise inside of her. It was almost like her magic, but something else. It was something older, stronger, yet familiar. Heather gasped, as if the air was knocked out of her. She collapsed onto her knees, her grip on Teddy almost loosened. Her body shook as the feeling rose higher and higher, until everything went black. The last thing she heard was the party resuming, and then someone screamed her name.

-ooOOoo-

On the other side of the world, 12 figures raised their heads when they felt a familiar power.

One of these figures breathed out in relief:

“At last, she has returned.”

-ooOOoo-

Somewhere deep inside the Earth, hidden from all living things, stood a tall man. He walked out of his cell’s door and over the creature that he knocked out. He chuckled as he made his way down the halls to his freedom. A moment later, he stopped and turned his head up towards the ceiling. Though, it was not what he was staring at. He stared at something that was far behind this long familiar ceiling. The smile no longer stretched across his face. He, too, felt the power. An old feeling, from millenniums ago, which tortured him during his long sentence, returned. His hands clenched into tight fists, one of which was around his golden scythe. He breathed out:

“Rhea”


	2. Chapter 2

Cronus sat in his hidden lair, on his new formed throne, in deep thought. He has escaped from Tartarus only mere hours ago. He has yet to do anything, as his mind was occupied by one thing, _Rhea_. For a Titan to be remembered as an evil ruler and a bad father, few knew the truth behind their love life. Rhea may have betrayed him, which the stories depicted him being naïve about it. Truth was that he almost expected it. Like their mother, she loved her children with all her being. He was rather surprised that she didn’t do anything after the first time.

Rhea was remembered as a gentle woman, but he knew that underneath it all was a dangerous being. Still, many wondered how he managed to get his hands on the ‘delicate flower’ of Gaia and Ouranos. That was not the proper question to ask. No. The right question was: how has she managed to catch his interest in the first place?

Cronus was used to the jealousy that overtook his siblings on a daily bases. There was always a drama of some sort. They would want the best of the best, no matter how impossible it was. Really, his _children_ reminded him of his siblings. Someone slept with this person. That sibling tried to kill the other. Oh! Did you hear about how this sibling got a mountain of valuable pearls? It was no wonder that he was the favourite son. At least he knew his limits and not to get into meaningless trouble. It was a dreadful existence, until Rhea was born.

Cronus took no notice of her for a long time. It wasn’t until she could comprehend the goings on around her that she drew his attention. He still remembered the first time she did so. It was during one of her earlier birthdays. One of their sisters gifted her with a golden necklace. Rhea _threw a fit_. She stated that she had no use for such a thing. They could have gotten her flowers and it would have been as valuable to her. As the only sibling that didn’t get her a gift, as he could care less for birthdays, Cronus wanted to test it out.

So he did.

The Titan left while there was still time, only to return with a bouquet of flowers. Those flowers were meaningless, with no real reason behind their pick and arrangements. In reality, they were a mess. Some of the flowers looked like they were butchered. Others were either dull or on the verge to die. There were even some weeds. Only few of them were bright and full of life. He grabbed what he could get his hands on. When it was his turn to present her a gift, he handed her the bouquet. Their siblings mocked him none so quiet of his choice of present. They all wanted to outdo one another, so to present themselves as the better child of their parents. A golden necklace, a crown, weapons and such were what they presented. Flowers? Phfff- who was in the right mind to pick that? His mother looked at him with disapproval. His father looked like he didn’t want to be there in the first place.

To the shock of everyone, Rhea loved the gift. It was the _only_ gift that made her smile brightened up like the sun. What they did not expect was for her to hug Cronus in a death grip as she thanked him many times. When she let go, the young Titaness of the time ran off to put the flowers in a vase in her room. For the rest of the evening, all the siblings were in a daze. Cronus was the most confused of them all, but also intrigued. He was not used to such reaction for something so minor. His others siblings would have thrown a fit, while he would have thrown the thing away.

So he continued to test her, without her knowledge. One time he would gift her with something that his siblings would be proud of, only for her to throw it back at his face. It did not matter if it was sharp or not sharp. He got a few injuries from those, as he underestimated her. The other time he would ‘make up’ by gifting her with something simple but practical. She would once more smile like the sun and hug him to near death. She, a gentle Titaness? What a joke. Cronus would never say it out loud, but at times her hugs almost _did_ kill him. And her temper was infamous among the siblings. It rivaled that of their mother’s. Only for Rhea, she kept the smile, but it would turn scary. He should have noticed them when he gifted her sharp gifts.

It was a slow progress, one that neither noticed, but at some point they fell in love. She was the only woman in his life that brought out the soft side of him. He never struck her. He never truly yelled at her, even when her temper snapped. When they did get into an argument, they always found their way back to each other. Cronus even remembered that after his final fight with their father, she almost never left his side as he healed. During those times, she helped in several ways to get the healing to go faster and be painless. If not for her, his injuries would have taken up to a year, at most, to heal. Not even with his powers would it have sped it up. Thanks to her, they took mere months.

By the time the idea of marriage came around, it was almost impossible to get her to say yes. They may have been a couple for centuries, but she was _not_ an easy woman to catch. At some point, for the both of them, it almost became a game. How could he prove that he was the right choice for her? She may be the Goddess of Fertility, but she would not open her legs up to anyone. Many beings, which included their brothers, found out the hard way. Sex was one thing, but _marriage?_ Even though that had a slight higher chance, it was still near to impossible.

At least the myths and legends got one thing right, they _did_ get married. And he still had his ring to prove that he never gave up on their marriage.

While in Tartarus, he always kept an eye out for her aura. It was not hard to, as they bonded in more ways than one in the beginning of their marriage. That hellish place has done a number on him in a psychological way. The only thing that kept his imprisonment bearable was her soothing aura. At times, when it became unbearable, he sought her aura out. Almost as if she knew, she responded. Her aura would circle around him, as if he was back in her arms. Those were his only dreamless and comforting nights.

Cronus would forever remember the day when he felt her aura disappear. Like a mad man, he fought his way to the surface. Well, more like he tried. He had to give it to his oldest son, Hades. His guards were well trained. But it did not stop him. For the next few centuries, he continued to plot his way out of there. He injured and killed many guards in doing so. He had to know what happened to his wife, his Rhea. He thought the worst has happened. That she was too injured, too weak or, even, killed. But he never found out. Nobody, not his mother, not his children, not his siblings, came to tell him where she was and what happened.

At some point, Cronus knew that he has lost his mind, at last.

The torture was too much, even for him, and soon it broke his mind. Sleepless nights became common, whereas sleep was a rarity. Nightmares haunted him when he did sleep. Soon after her disappearances, he swore that he heard her. She would scream in pain, as if, as he feared, she was killed. Almost like a ghost, she would ask him why he didn’t help her. Why did he have to eat their children? Why has he turned into the one thing that he hated the most, their father? Cronus could never answer those questions, because he didn’t know. He just did. The small fear always overtook him when their children were born, one by one. For a man that had complete control over his emotions, he could never do so when their 6 children were born. He did not know why. They always dreamed of growing a family. They wanted their own family to outshine their old one. It did, in a way.

But now, she has returned.

Cronus inhaled then exhaled in a slow pace. His golden eyes closed, as only one thought went through his mind.

He had to find her. He had to locate Rhea.

As he thought that, unbeknown to him, an ancient spell overtook his mind. His smile turned into a twisted smirk. As his eyes snapped open, they phased back and forth between gold and red. They landed on red.

“But not before I get rid of those damn Gods and take back my throne.”

-ooOOoo-

“Grandmother, did you feel it?”

“Of course I did”

“I can’t believe _he_ escaped and mother returned. My dear wife is telling me how everyone is losing their heads.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised. You would think that as your dear mother, you, her children and grandchildren, would visit her more often. Not even dear Zeus visits me anymore, and I changed his diapers. It was a good thing that we gave her a choice to live on in many new lives.”

“Ahem, I did not need to know that about Zeus. But in all seriousness, have you seen her?”

“Of course I have. It is hard to hide from me.”

“The others are going on about finding her and bringing her here. We’re thinking to have her live with the heroes of the prophecy, but we’re still not sure. We’re more worried about finding her before Cronus does. I mean, I understand where mommy dearest comes from, when we last talked. But from the reports I got, Cronus has lost his mind after she left.”

“Hm… that is worrisome. But I don’t think that it’s the best idea, to take her away against her will. Rhea hasn’t changed much between the many lives she led. She’ll need to understand what’s going on first, before accepting anything.”

“Then who will go talk to her? Only you and I understand what is going on, but even I’m still skeptical about her plans. The others will try to poison her mind, whether they realize it or not.”

“Then I guess it’s time to visit my dear daughter.”

-ooOOoo-

Heather tried not pout. _Everybody is overreacting_ , she decided. _I mean, sure I fainted, but it doesn’t mean that they have to confine me to a bed 24/7._ With a frown-not-a-pout, she crossed her arms and leaned against the headboard. She was confined to her temporary bed in the Weasley Manor. Molly and Hermione had all but used the sticking charm on her to keep her in bed. They even took her wand! Her freaking _wand_! Have you ever heard of a witch without a wand? No? Well, neither did she.

But they couldn’t take away her little knowledge of wandless magic. So there!

At this moment, like for the last few days, Hermione fussed over her. At least this time around Molly was not there.

“Oh for the love of- Hermione! I just had a fainting spell.”

“You just had- _Heather Lily Potter_! You did not ‘just had’ a so-called fainting spell. This is serious. You have been out for a few days. Not even the Healer that we brought could figure out what was wrong with you. And when you _did_ wake up, you were so weak you couldn’t even lift your arm.”

“It’s stress-”

“That is not any better. If all of this is from _stress_ , then you need a vacation.”

Heather looked at her with bafflement. Vacation? That concept was foreigner to her. With everything that happened to her, she never went on anything like that. The Dursley’s didn’t want to spend a dime on her. If they ever went somewhere, they would have Mrs. Figg look after her. If she was unavailable, then her other aunt took care of her. That was hell on earth in itself. Then during her Hogwarts years, she always had to worry about Voldermort. The summers were always filled with either trapped in the dreaded 4 Private Drive or taken somewhere for protection. Now, with the war over, she couldn’t leave the house without being mobbed by people. She could almost imagine how it would be in foreigner countries.

“Vacation…” She tested the word out. “I never went on a vacation. Even if I do, I don’t know where to go and what to do.”

Hermione’s lips turned into a straight line, showing much displeasure. Her brown eyes thundered with anger, but not at her. Heather could guess that it was towards the Dursley’s and Voldermort. The black headed witch hoped that she didn’t get the bright idea to go after the Dursley’s. Even though they still didn’t along, at least Dudley tried to make an effort to treat her like family. That was more than she could ever hope for. Though, her aunt and uncle were a different matter. Not that she cared anymore. She still had physical scars and her short height from being in their care.

“There are lots of places around the world you can go to and not be bothered, much. There’s Asia and Africa, who don’t care about the Second Wizarding War. In Africa you can check out the non-magical creatures. Asia has all kinds of new discovered dragons- thought to have been lost for centuries! But I heard Russia isn’t all that kind to British wizards and witches, so avoid that.” Hermione babbled out ideas as she sat down on the chair next to the bed. “South America should be nice. You’ll like it because of the animals. There are lots of snakes there, so you will have something to talk to. America you should avoid, they are like us, from what I heard. You’re trying to relax, not be more stressed. Oh! Maybe Canada-”

Heather chuckled at the nonstop blabbering. At some point Hermione had to pause to take a deep breath before continuing. It was nice that the brown headed witch didn’t change much in that aspect. She cut her off:

“I’ll think about it. But do you mind doing me a favour?”

“Hm?”

“Can you bring Teddy? I haven’t seen him since I woke up.”

Hermione blinked a few times before she ‘oh’ in realization. They _had_ kept the godmother and godson away from each other for a little too long. Not that they noticed or meant to. She got up in a flash and announced:

“I’ll do it right now. I think it’s his nap time.” She looked down with a grim look, “He hasn’t been sleeping well, since you’ve been out.” Her brown eyes glared at the green eyed witch. “So while I’m gone, don’t you dare get out of bed, or I _will_ use the sticky charm.”

“Hai, hai, captain.”

Heather mocked saluted her. After she left, the witch’s eyes flashed with different emotions. She was worried for her godson. With her out of it and weak, he might have had more frequent nightmares. He only calmed down from them when she was around. Then there was the confusion. She was confused about two things. One of which, was this weird… thing. Inside of her, there was this… new fire, one could say. It wasn’t there before, or, at least, that was what she thought. Somewhere in the back of her mind, it felt familiar. It somehow connected with her magical core, which made her nervous. Could she have gotten new powers? If so, of what kind? Why did everything have to happen to her?

The other thing that confused her was of that night. When the clock struck 12, it wasn’t just her new power that she felt. There was another one, which felt just as old and powerful. It also felt familiar, and made her want to follow it. Even while she was knocked out, that foreigner power sought her out. It didn’t threaten her in any way, unlike with the past ones like Voldermort and Snape. It was almost as if… it wanted to find her. But in a manner of need, rather than that of evil.

And then there were the ‘dreams’, which became clearer than ever. No longer were most faces covered in a fog like manner. Names were clear as crystal. Her senses were felt without a fault. These ‘dreams’ tried to tell her something important, but she couldn’t fathom as to what it was. At least one thing was clear: the Golden Trio were right. Her ‘dreams’ were of Rhea. Those ‘dreams’ contained figures from the myths and legends. Many of them looked and acted just like she expected. Yet, there were some that were… different. Cronus, Rhea’s husband, was one. She remembered some things from brief memories in Primary School. One of which was that he was described as evil’s incarnate. In those ‘dreams’, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Heather _knew_ evil, but he was not one of them. He was kind to her- Rhea. A lot of their interactions were spent in either silence, deep thoughtful topics or playing some adult games. When she meant adult games, Heather did _not_ mean _those_ kinds. Thank Merlin that she didn’t have those ‘dreams’. He was a handsome man in simple clothing, but she’d _die_ if she got those ‘dreams’. No, what she meant was that it was more of… dating games, she guessed? Yeah, that sounded about right.

What did this all mean?

A moment later Hermione came back with a fussing Teddy in her arms. When he saw his godmother, he reached his arms out to her and cried out:

“Hea… Hea…”

“Oh, come here, sweetheart.”

Heather cooed as she was handed over her godson. The baby buried his face into the corner of her neck. He quietened down in her arms, to be left with a sniffle or two. His grip on her shirt was so strong, that she knew she couldn’t pry him off of her. Not that she minded. It was time for his nap, so he might as well sleep in her arms. She knew, for one, that she wasn’t about to let him go again.

_Growl_

Hermione blushed in embarrassment. Her stomach grumbled again a moment later. The black headed witch turned to her friend with a grin.

“Mione, you should go grab something to eat. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on Teddy. Promise.”

Her friend relaxed, knowing that the other witch would keep to the promise.

“Well, if you need anything, just shout. If not, Ron will come and check on you in an hour.”

Heather nodded in understanding. Hermione left, closing the door behind her.

The lone witch turned to her godson. She decided to hum a nursery rhyme that she found in a book when he first came to her custody. Teddy’s sniffles quietened down. It was not until after she rubbed his back that it did the trick. It put the baby to sleep. Heather turned to lie down on her back, with the blanket on top of the duo. She stared at the ceiling, as she thought again about those ‘dreams’. _Something is going to happen now, I just know it._ She thought with annoyance. _What’s next? A Voldermort wanna-be?_

“Not quite”

Heather tried not to jump, as she did not forget about the little guy on her chest. As fast as she could, but with care not to wake up the baby, she sat up. Her emerald eyes narrowed at the figure that stood at the foot of her bed. The woman dressed like a queen, with light blue eyes and white hair. The older woman grinned with amusements. She commented:

“What, no hello to your dear old mother?”

“Gaia” Heather breathed out in shock. She remembered her with clearness from those ‘dreams’. Wait, _mother?!_ There goes the Potter luck again. She could not help but whine out loud, “Oh, you have got to be kidding me!”

“That is not how you greet a guest. You should be offering me a sit.”

The deity scolded her as if she was a child. Well, that would be true. The witch must appear like a day old baby in compression to her. Heather felt a headache start to pound its way to the surface. With a free hand, she waved to the chair next to her. _Why do I even bother?_

Her supposed mother sat down. The Goddess’ light blue eyes looked away from her daughter to the baby. She cooed at the sight.

“Oh, isn’t this precious? I haven’t seen a baby this up close since I helped you and the others raise Zeus. His name is Teddy, isn’t it?”

“Ah… yeah…” Heather blinked. This was an odd conversation starter. “How do you know that?”

“I’ve always kept an eye on you while you led your lives.” The mother looked back at her daughter with a displeased frown. “They were always peaceful. But I have to say, this life of yours… what do mortals say? Oh yes, it takes the cake. Really, I know you must be bored, but you didn’t have to born into a prophecy to get some excitement.”

There was a lot there that Heather found confusing. Lives? Peaceful? _Bored_? Like hell did she want to have this life! All she ever wanted was to have a peaceful life from the start. A life where she had her family and friends, without those adventures and Voldermort. Her emerald eyes started to thunder in anger at the comments. She cast a silent spell onto Teddy, who started to fuss with all the noise. Not even a second later, she hissed at the Goddess:

“What do you mean I was _bored_? And what do you mean that I led many lives? How do I know that I really am your daughter? Are you even really Gaia? How do I know you’re not a leftover Death Eater coming to twist my mind?”

Wow, Hermione must be so proud of her. She asked all those questions in one breath. Well, too bad she wasn’t there. And too bad Heather was too pissed off to care. The white headed woman hummed as she rested her cheek against a long forefinger. She looked rather amused, than anything else.

“I see you still have my temper, but without the smile. As for all your questions, I will answer them soon enough, dear. We have an hour to talk about it all. If not, I can always return later.”

Heather studied her supposed mother with a critical eye. She asked of her:

“Can you swear that you’re telling the truth?”

“Of course, you could have asked me in the first place. No need to be rude.” Gaia scolded her again, while she raised an elegant eyebrow. With a straightened back, she chanted. “I, Gaia, hereby swear on my title, as the Goddess of Earth, that I am who I say I am. And that I will answer your questions with as much trust as I can. So mote it be.”

Around her, a silver aura appeared. It was so bright, that it almost blinded the witch. She covered her eyes, until the light died down. When she looked back, the deity waved her hand at a vase filled with flowers. The slow dying flowers grew brighter, and appeared healthier than before. Heather watched in awe, which turned into slow realization. This woman swore on something that did its job, as she still had her magic. This meant only one thing.

Heather gulped and looked into the woman, her _mother_ ’s, eyes. Her whole being shook in shock.

“I’m… I’m listening”

To her credit, the witch didn’t stutter too much. The Goddess’ smile brightened the room, excited to finally reunite with her daughter. This was going better than she first thought. She hummed out loud:

“Now, there’s a lot that you need to know. But we’ll start with the basic. You are Rhea, my and Ouranos’ daughter. The Goddess of Fertility, Motherhood and Generation. You are the wife of Cronus, and the mother of 6 of the 12 Gods. You have reawakened, because Cronus has escaped from Tartarus.”

“Mrs. Gaia-”

“Please, dear, call me mom. That’s what you always called me.”

Heather coughed behind a fist in awkwardness. She needed to stay polite, for everyone’s sake, if what her mother said was true about her temper.

“Right… mom.” The way her mother smiled almost made her return the smile, if not for the situation. “You said, Cronus _escaped_ from Tartarus?”

“Ah yes. Not his first time, but this is the only time he succeeded.” The old Goddess huffed with a look of disapproval. “He has yet to call or write to me to say hello.”

“How long ago did he escape?”

“Oh, a week, I believe.”

At that comment Heather gave her mother a look. She expected someone that escaped a jail in a week to get in contact with her? Wait, something wasn’t right with that thought process. A week? The witch paled as she thought what the date was a week ago. _New Years’. He escaped Tartarus on New Years’._ She thought. _Does that mean that it was_ him _that I felt the power from? Was his power so strong, that it stopped time? Wait, what was he the God of again?_ The Woman-Who-Lived closed her eyes, feeling a headache build again.

“I think I felt him a week ago.”

Gaia nodded in agreement.

“And we all felt your reawakening.”

Heather looked at her in confusion. She asked:

“When you say all…?”

“Every deity known to mortals, and then some. I’m sure that Cronus felt your power as well.” Her mother’s shoulders heaved down. “And we all believe he’ll be looking for you, now that he knows you’re alive, again. But,” The woman gave her a secretive smile, “that is what you hoped for.”

“I don’t understand.”

Gaia sat in silence, as she pondered something.

“No. I supposed not. Let me start from the beginning, so that you’d understand what’s going on. You, my dear, have gone into deep depression, a few centuries after Cronus’ imprisonment. You have always been a good actress, and I can’t say that I blame you. Not when you have Ouranos as a father.” She sighed in sadness at the memories. “None of us noticed anything amiss until you stopped talking to us. I’m disappointed at my grandchildren and grand-grandchildren, for not noticing anything. You are their mother and grandmother. They should be caring for you, not brushing you aside. Yet, I’m disappointed in myself. If I noticed it early on, I would have helped you. For that, I apologize.”

Heather almost laughed in coldness at the irony at what she heard. Of course even her family from her first life were a disaster. They were either dead or didn’t want anything to do with her. She must be cursed or something, when it came to having a family. But she didn’t laugh. Instead, she kept her face neutral to not show her thoughts. Gaia smiled with grim.

“Like now, what you are doing, you have done before. Only, at some point, you locked yourself away. Only one of your sons, and I, have noticed something wasn’t right. And that was when we went to talk to you.”

“Wait… that sounds like something that I dreamt, not too long ago.” Her daughter stopped her from speaking. With a concentrated look, she continued to speak. “I remember Rhea- _me_ looking rather depressed. Then there was a knock on the door, and I was surprised. But that was as far as my dream went.”

Gaia nodded, showing that she was right.

“Yes, it was us on the other side of the door. You allowed us in, when we showed concern. We talked, and decided to have you be reborn as a mortal, as many times as possible. That is, until Cronus escaped. We only ever wanted you to find happiness somewhere, and if it was in other lives, we accepted it.”

“You keep saying my son, which one are you talking about?”

“Ah-ah-ah, he wants to surprise you. But not now. When the others will come to get you, he will appear.”

“Others? What do you mean _others_?”

“Your children are planning to get you, before Cronus does.”

Heather stopped herself from asking more questions. She had to return to the main topic. There was still time to ask other questions.

“You said that Cronus is coming after me. Why?”

Guilt shined in the old deity’s eyes. She didn’t smile as she answered:

“After his imprisonment, Cronus tried to escape for a few centuries before stopping. We believe that he tried to escape because of you.”

Her? Why would anyone try to get out of prison because of- _well… there was Sirius_. Heather thought. But it still didn’t explain why a Titan slash God would go after her. She didn’t know much about Tartarus, so she couldn’t say much about it.

“You and he have gone a step further than your father and I ever did in marriage. To prove your love, you two bonded your souls and magic. When you left to live a mortal life, your deity powers and aura were covered up. For as many times as you were reborn. You never stayed a deity. Your son and I believe that Cronus thought you were dead. But we never checked. Nobody went to let him know of your whereabouts, or what happened to you.”

Something didn’t sound right to her. _They didn’t check? They didn’t let a man know that his wife was still alive, when he thought she was dead? For a God to have tried for so long to get out, they bother to ask_ why _? What… what kind of a place is Tartarus that managed to keep him in and everyone away?_ Heather wondered, as she tried to figure out what made anger bubble inside of her.

“What is Tartarus like?”

Gaia didn’t say anything at first. So Heather watched her, and took notice of how she stiffened at the question and tried to keep a straight face. Yet her eyes were like an open book. They looked old, tired and the guilt only grew. She spoke with softness:

“There are no words to describe it. It’s a horrid place that only the worse go. I don’t know exactly what kind of punishments they use, but they are enough to be able to break anyone. Nobody that wasn’t sent there would go there on their free will. The guards, themselves, alone lose their minds after some time.”

As Heather listened, she grew to understand the reasoning behind her anger. It wasn’t only because of who she was, in a past life. It was also because of her own experiences, with her godfather and Azkaban. It was bad enough to watch what such a place did to her godfather. But her husband? That thought made her temper grew thinner, and the air around them grew thicker. Her magic grew wilder, and some of the lighter objects of the room rattled in respond. The witch concentrated hard to keep her new and old magic down, with some success. Yet the objects continued to rattle, but not as much. She could not let another episode of what happened in Dumbledore’s office happen here. Not now, at least. Not when she held an important conversation that would affect her future forever. Not when she had her baby godson asleep in her arms. While Gaia could protect herself, Teddy could not.

No longer did Heather question if this woman was still serious and telling the truth. Heather felt Gaia’s power leak out, ready to put on a shield in case the daughter blew up. Since she still had her magic, then everything that was told was the truth. _I cannot deny it anymore. I am Rhea, and Cronus is my husband. I have children, who are 6 of the 12 Olympian Gods. I have a living mother, who is none other than Gaia. It’s all… hard to take in._ With a deep breath, she bit out a respond with an ice tone:

“You are telling me, that you left my husband in a place worse than Azkaban. He has tried to break out of there, many times, over a few _centuries_ , because he was a worried husband. And none of you even _thought_ about going to him and letting him know what happened to me? You left a locked up husband with the thoughts that his wife is probably _dead_ , on his own, for _millenniums_!?” At this point, she couldn’t hold back her screams. “ _Do you people even know what those places can do to a person!? Do you even realize what you all have done?!_ No wonder he stopped escaping. No wonder he’s trying to find me, now. His mind must have been broken for so long that now that he knows I’m back, he’s like a madman in search for sanity! What have you to say for yourself?”

Gaia did not stop her from talking. She didn’t stop the screaming. Yet she did put up a silent spell around the room, so no sound would escape. She took in all the verbal hits, with a head bowed. It was the least she could do, with whatever shame she had left. Nobody for 4,000 years said anything that they all knew was true. Even though Cronus has done unspeakable crimes, the one person that should have known better was his own mother. For centuries, she has watched as her little Rhea grabbed Cronus’ attention. Whatever relationship they had in the beginning, has changed into a love so strong that put the most famous love stories to shame. She and her grandson were warned by her that Ouranos must have done something else to Cronus. He changed too much in too little time. Her daughter pleaded on her knees to both her and her son to make his stay as easy as possible, while she was gone. At least, until he’d escape and she’d reawaken, so that she could uncover a cure for him. She was quite close, at the time. But her depression, and the lack of access to him, prevented her from any advancement. Rhea’s son kept his end of the deal, on some level. Still, they brought the heartbroken husband no mental peace. To them, his possible cursed form, which he committed crimes in, overshadowed everything else.

Gaia could not look into her daughter’s eyes. She could feel those heated, betrayed, emerald eyes on her. She has failed as a mother, again.

“I can’t say anything. No matter how much I will apologize, it will not fix what has happened. All that I can do, is help as best as I can.” With that, the tall old deity stood up. She looked at her daughter in the eyes for only a moment before looking away. Her old heart clenched as she confirmed what she suspected. “One of your children will arrive to take you to their hideout, which is in Canada. Expect them in the next week, at the latest. Once you’ll arrive there, ask of your son for your journal. It will contain all the spells and theories that you had of what Ouranos could have done to Cronus.” At that moment, Teddy started to wake up. His brown sleepy eyes blinked open and looked around. Yet, his grip on the young woman didn’t loosen. When his eyes landed on Gaia, he studied her for a second before deciding to ignore her and focus on his godmother. The Earth Goddess gave a small smile at the sight. “And I’m sure that you can bring your godson with you. If you need anything, just say my name. Goodbye, Rhea.”

Without waiting for a respond, Gaia disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Not even a minute later, the door opened to reveal Ron. He raised an eyebrow when he saw his pissed off best friend.

“What happened to you?”

Heather resisted the urge to pinch her nose. It was unbelievable that an hour passed. With a sharp inhale through her nose, she turned to the red headed wizard.

“Ron, get Hermione. There’s something that you should know.”

For a few seconds, Ron stood still as he took in the phrase. He groaned out loud with a slap to the forehead.

“Bloody hell Heather! Can’t you control that blasted Potter luck of yours?”

If not for the silent charm placed on Teddy, and knowing that he was right, the witch would have thrown the vase at him.

-ooOOoo-

“Oh, for Merlin’s sake- Heather, I told you to stay still for _one hour_. When I said that, I did _not_ mean for you to go discover that you are the reincarnation of Rhea.”

Hermione lectured Heather as she waved her forefinger in her face. The black headed witch pouted and tried to protest. Teddy, now fully awake, was busy trying to get her attention. His first attempt was to grab her hair.

“You think I look for trouble? Ow!”

She winced at the harsh pull and turned her attention to her godson. His big green eyes that he copied from her looked at her with naïve and innocence. But he smiled anyways when she did turn her attention to him. With a sigh, she gently undid his grip on her hair. It was Ron that spoke up, for the first time since the revelation. He had a dry smile on his face.

“Mate, we know you don’t look for it. But this is crazy, even for you.” He paused. “So… what’s the plan? Are you going to go with your… um… kids?”

The Golden Trio winced at how awkward that sounded. There was a lot that they have gone through together. In their first year, it was the Philosopher Stone, a three headed dog, a Devil’s Snare and a possessed professor. Their second year was not much better. It had a Basilisk and a useless professor that tried to wipe Ron’s and Heather’s memories before running away. Third year, a werewolf, Dementors and a supposedly murderer after Heather. Fourth year, the Triwizard Tournament, dragons, mermaids and the resurrection of Voldermort. Fifth year, Umbridge. The next two years pretty much overlapped each other, only to end in a war. Enough said. But Greek Gods, Titans and being the reincarnated of Rhea? No. They had a shitty Hogwarts career and have hoped to get a break. At least, now that two of the three were out of school. It appeared that their troubles only grew in an alarming rate. It just so happened to be on the last person they wished it upon, Heather.

Heather looked at the two with a tired look.

“I don’t know… I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.”

The couple looked at each other before they turned to their best friend. Without hesitation, the duo grabbed her free hand into theirs. They squeezed her hand a bit, as they swore.

“We will still be there for you. Don’t forget that.”

“If you need anything from us, we’re just a letter and a floo call away.”

Heather looked at them in shock. Her heart fluttered and felt like it grew in size at the declaration of their undying friendship. She blinked away her tears while she sent them a watery smile. She whispered:

“Thank you”


	3. Chapter 3

Cronus was not a happy camper. He has been out of the dreadful prison for only a day, when he went to the Oracle. All he wanted to know was if there was anybody that stood in his way. Well, he got his answer, but not the one that he wanted. It was not hard for the Titan to figure out who were the new heroes that stood in his way. Without much of a thought, he sent his giants to get rid of them. Much to his displeasure and anger, they came back defeated.

This has happened a few days ago.

Today, he had a plan to get the last hero before the others did. If he didn’t kill that hero, at least the planet would fall apart.

-ooOOoo-

Heather had for the last few days, sleepless nights. Her dreams were invaded by memories of her time as Rhea. They started simple enough, with being surrounded by her parents, brothers and sisters. Her father wasn’t in the picture, for the most part, but when he was it never was a pleasant experience. Then the memories grew more complicated, with her odd relationship with Cronus. She remembered how neither of them knew what to make of the other. The other individual was nothing like their other siblings. Unlike the others, the duos were more level headed and could care less about the things that the others did. Soon the relationship turned romantic and after that came the marriage. The most complicated memories she saw were of Cronus eating their children, until she hid Zeus. Her suspicion of her husband’s bizarre behaviour only grew at that point. It was only after he got placed in Tartarus that she finally started to research on possible curses.

This last point made Heather go through a rollercoaster of emotions.

She was angry with her past self, to the point that if she could, she’d strangle the woman. Why in the world did she decide to research what was wrong with her husband, only _after_ they put him in Tartarus? Heather never had a loving family until she walked into the Wizarding World. Yet, even then, it was filled with heartbreak and hardship. So to her, it was bizarre that her past self had everything she ever wanted, but treated it inappropriately. If she knew back then what she knew now, there was no way that whatever curse Cronus had would have gone unchecked for so long. Fire burned in her emerald eyes, every time she thought about it. Nobody dared to get close to her when she had that look. They all looked the other way, with a wonder who was the poor person that angered her. Ron and Hermione may have an idea, but they never walked up to ask. They cared for their health, thank you very much.

But the anger died down and got replaced with sadness and guilt. They were the same ones that drove her into depression in her past life. It was such a heavy feeling, that it made Heather want to collapse onto her knees and cry. It was only thanks to the toughness that the Dursley’s enforced on her, where tears led to nowhere, which kept her together. Funny that it were those monsters that were the reason to her being tougher this time around. She never had the time to go into such a deep depression, and she didn’t plan to start now. There was only one downside of the whole return-of-the-memories. Her past personality seeped into her present one. This made her tough persona soften up a bit, which made her more emotional, much to her anger and annoyance.

In the end, Heather used all the newfound energy to get her hands on every magical book that she could. If not from stores, as it was hard, then from Hermione. If not from Hermione, she was forced to go to the bank to get into the Potter and Black family vaults. It was only thanks to Sirius, who made her the heir to the Black Family, that it allowed her to access good books. If not the bank, then she went to 12 Grimmauld Place’s giant library. If not, then, she went to the Potter Manor, where the sad energy weighted on her almost like her guilt.

Between looking after her godson and studying like a mad woman, Heather had no time for anything else. It made everyone worried. Even _Hermione_ became worried, no matter how proud she was of her friend’s sudden seriousness in her studies. The only missing key was her journal from her past life. It contained all her thoughts and knowledge she never recovered in her memory-dreams.

But the last few days were not good days. Out of nowhere, a light ring appeared around the planet. The Earth shook with a loud groan. It almost made the 12 Grimmauld Place tumble down and collapse, if not for the charms that protected it. Heather held Teddy close to her. Her eyes shinned with fear for everyone’s lives. The baby, bless him, was oblivious to the fear and acted as energetic as ever. He whined at being held for so long, but his pleas went ignored.

Heather held back a gulp. A bad feeling bubbled in her gut. She turned away from the window in the dining room and made her way to her bedroom. It was the master bedroom, Sirius’ bedroom and every other heads of the Black Family bedroom. Before she got her hands on this house, it was a sad, dark place. Her godfather tried to make it better in his time of hiding, but it didn’t help much. As much as she loved him, she admitted that he became a bit crazy after his time at Azkaban. But as the new head, she managed to turn the place into a place where one could live in peace. All dark artifacts were destroyed or given to either the goblins or Unspeakables. All the insane portraits of the Black family members were removed. Yes, that included Sirius’ mother. That was a nightmare in itself, so don’t ask. The old styled wallpaper that seen better days were replaced with brighter, but appropriate colours for each room. The living room was coated in light brown that reminded Heather of chocolate. The kitchen was much the same. The rooms had all kinds of shades of blue, rather than the horrid green and red. The red, she suspected, was blood, but she wasn’t too keen to find out. Even the damn dungeon that she discovered by accident she gotten rid of. If not for Winky, Heather would have worked without a break for a year or two.

Yet, with all the changes, it still held memories of Sirius and every other Order of the Phoenix member that died. Heather managed to live in this house, but it was hard at the same time.

Back in her bedroom, she placed Teddy in the tiny playpen that was his back with his grandmother. She knew that the toys would keep him entertained for the time being. The black headed witch hurried to her new suitcase. It was one of the newer and quite expensive models in Diagon Alley. It had plenty of space where she can place both her and Teddy’s belongings. The young woman had to make sure that she got everything packed. Even with the terror outside, she did this. It was because she received a letter from her mother. It told her that one of her children would arrive soon to get her. On the bottom, she was told not to pay too close attention to the ice ring around the earth, as it was being taken care of.

Yeah, let’s not worry about the earthquakes that appeared every 5 minutes and the crazy weather pattern. Thanks mom.

Heather gave out a shaky breath when she felt Cronus’ aura spike with anger. At the same time, the planet stopped shaking and the crazy snowfall stopped outside. The witch shook as she got up and made her way to the window. Her first thought was to look at the sky, and she did. A shaky laughter escaped her lips when she saw that the ice ring was gone. She turned around and raced to her godson. Teddy protested when she picked him up out of nowhere, which made him drop his toy. He pushed against her and tried to reach the toy that was far from his reach. The baby was confused when she kissed him both on the cheeks and hugged him close.

“We’re okay… we’re going to be okay now.”

Heather breathed out with her nose buried in Teddy’s hair. The aura soon disappeared from her senses, which allowed her to relax a bit. Thanks to her memories slash dreams she could tell that something was off about Cronus’ aura. In her memories, he had an aura that screamed respect but there was no superior complex like she felt a moment ago. He was calm and had a lot of patience, unlike the temper that made Voldemort appear tame. It all reminded her of the evil wizard, which caused her to shiver at the memories of the sick feeling he gave her.

With a deep breath, Heather stood on two shaky legs.

“Teddy, it hurts to not be able to do anything. I hate feeling this weak.”

She told her godson. The 8 month old baby blinked at her with no understanding to what she said. But he felt her sadness, to which made him pat her cheeks while he cooed. The duo rested their foreheads together, and he gave her a loud wet kiss on the nose. Heather blinked for a moment and roared in laughter. Her hug around him tightened, but not enough to suffocate him. He shrieked in laughter when she kissed him all over the face.

“Oh, you’re precious, you know that?” With a happy sigh, she tugged his head under her chin. She whispered, “What would I do without you?”

Unbeknown to her, a warmth pulse was sent out through her and Cronus’ link.

-ooOOoo-

Forget being an unhappy guy. Cronus was _furious_. He could not believe that he got beaten, again, by _mortal_ teenagers. Not only has his plans failed, but his pride has taken a hit. During his anger, he has annihilated many hill sized rocks and trees around him. To him, they mattered little. The only thing that mattered to him was-

Cronus stopped midway from his need to obliterate a huge rock beside him. A warm feeling washed over him. Much to his annoyance, it calmed him down. His eyes turned gold as an aftermath. The man shook his head and grabbed it. He got the mother of all headaches. The feeling continued, which helped lessen the pain. A small sigh of relief escaped his lips. He opened his eyes and took a moment to realize what happened.

“Rhea”

Cronus breathed out. His grip on the black scythe tightened. Without a thought, he opened a portal to head to wherever his wife was.

-ooOOoo-

Heather stood in the entrance of the living room, in shock at the sight. In the middle of the room stood Hades, who looked much the same as he did thousands of years ago. The only differences were that he had a bit of wrinkles in the edges of his eyes. It showed the years of laughter and happiness. Beside him was Winky, who appeared to try to figure out _how_ he got in and what he was.

“You is not allowed here. You need to go! Shoo! Shoo!”

The God appeared more amused than anything at the welcoming party that he received.

“Ah, ah, ah, my dear. I’m here to pick up mommy dearest.”

“Mistress Heather is not your mother. Winky will not allow you to hurt mistress.”

“Hades”

Heather voiced out as she shook herself out of shock. The God and house-elf turned their attention to the head of the house. Winky cried out in a frantic manner that her mistress found a stranger in her house before she could get rid of him.

“M-Mistress Heather, Winky will get rid of him. Please-”

“Winky, it is okay.” The witch tried to calm down the house-elf. “Remember that I told you we will have a guest soon? This is him. Now, can you do me a favour and bring me my luggage? It’s the new one that I got. I’ll be leaving right away.”

“Y-Yes Mistress Heather.”

The brown eyed house elf flicker her eyes once more to the purple skinned God before popping away on the spot.  Heather placed Teddy on her hip and opened an arm to hug her oldest son.

“Come here.” The smile he gave her might as well have blinded her. Her heart quickened in happiness as her son returned her hug with as much feeling. He was a tall man, much taller than her current mortal form. But it was okay. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I missed you too, mommy dearest.”

The God of the Dead replied. His eyes watered a bit as he pulled away from the hug to look her over. He could not believe that she was alive and here. Well, he knew that she was alive, of course, but so close to him? No. He has not been able to lay his eyes on her, much less hug her, for almost 4,000 years. His love for his mother showed in the hug, as he was careful to not crush her with his Godly strength, but held her close. His black eyes turned to Teddy, who looked less than pleased that a stranger hugged his godmother. If not for the pacifier in his mouth, the 8 month old would have made his opinion known through voice. Yet, because he couldn’t, he leaned over and tried to push Hades off of her, but to no success. This made the duo laugh at his antics. Heather kissed her godson on the temple and introduced him to her son.

“Hades, this is Teddy.”

“Teddy?” Hades asked with a raised eyebrow. “Is that short for something?”

“Ah, Edward Remus Lupin, but everyone calls him Teddy.” She explained. With that, a thought passed her that caused her to look at him in worry. “I want to take Teddy with us. I can’t leave him alone. He’s my godson. I-”

The God sighed, his smile shined a bit with nostalgia. He interrupted her:

“I’m sure that we can work with this. It might do us some good, to have a baby around. I know for sure that my lovely Persephone will love him.”

The witch almost sighed in relief, but held back the urge. A _pop_ echoed through the living room, and appeared Winky with Heather’s luggage. The house-elf bowed to the only witch in the room, which made the other almost groan. She tried to tell the house-elf not to treat her in such a manner. It was fine with her that they treated each other like friends. But Winky refused to listen, like now.

“Winky did as she was told. Where should Winky take these?”

“Wherever Hades will take me.”

Heather stated as she looked over at her oldest son. The God nodded in agreement and answered:

“It is known as the Brownstone, and it’s a house complex near Olympus High in Canada. I suggest not making yourself known to the heroes there when you drop off the luggage. They are muggles and got into the hero business recently.” He chuckled at the following thought. “We’ll give those poor dears heart attacks or bumps on the head from fainting.”

Winky looked for confirmation from her mistress, who nodded. With that, she once more popped out of existence. The moment she left, the witch turned to her son. She asked in confusion:

“I thought I’ll be living with all of you.”

The man shrugged.

“Zeus and Hera believe that the heroes will look after you well enough.”

Heather scowled at the information.

“I don’t need to be looked after.”

“The others think otherwise, now that they figured out that you’re a Titaness trapped in a mortal’s body. _I_ think you should stay with us, since Cronus will not find you in our hideout.”

The scowled turned into a sweet smile with a dark undertone. It sent shivers down the God’s spine. He remembered that exact smile form millenniums ago that made everyone run for the hills. It appeared that Gaia was wrong. Even though her temper grew a touch worse, the smile stayed.

“So I’m a useless little witch to all of you? Do you know who I am, in this life?”

“Ahem, y-yes mommy dearest. Y-You’re Heather P-Potter-Black. By t-the way, thanks for g-getting rid of that abomination.”

Hades could not figure it out on the life of him how it was possible for such a short woman to be so scary. His eye twitched at how much her godson enjoyed the display. He didn’t even bother to hide the smile that could be seen behind his pacifier. Heather didn’t notice, and so the darkness behind her smile deepened.

“I am Heather Potter-Black, the Girl-Who-Lived, the Woman-Who-Lived, the Saviour of the Wizarding World, and _I_ need to be protected by a bunch of newbie wanna-be heroes from my own husband?”

Hades could do only one thing before running for his life. He pulled out a worn out scroll that was tied in his belt and handed it to her, as an offering to spare his Godly life. It was no secret among the Gods and Goddesses that if Rhea has joined the war and was on Cronus’ side, the Titans would have won hands down. She was no damsel in distress. But not many of them believed that she had enough power to protect herself in this life as a mortal.

“M-Mommy dearest, this is your journal.”

Heather’s personality took a full turn of 180. It went from being ready to curse him to snatching the scroll out of his hands without a thought. In return she placed Teddy in his arms, with a warning look to not drop him. Neither the baby nor God were pleased with the sudden switch. While Hades was busy trying not to drop the fussy baby, the witch opened the scroll and read through the first contents. But there was a problem. It was all written in Ancient Greek and in what appeared to be codes. _Bloody brilliant! I forgot how paranoid I was during that time. Fantastic, now what? I don’t even remember the damn language. How am I supposed to research now?_ Well, as Hermione always said, _to the library!_

It was a good thing that Heather had her whole library packed in the suitcase. It was even better that in Ancient Runes there was the whole Ancient Greek alphabet. And she so happened to have them.

A powerful aura appeared. Both mother and son’s heads snapped towards the direction. They ran to the window and saw outside, on the street, was Cronus. The Titan looked from side to side with a frustrated look. Heather took a moment to study him over and took in any differences in his appearance. The only real difference was that his black hair now had white stripes, which showed his age. Then there was the change in attire, where he wore a more modern outfit compared to his ancient one. Hades turned to his mother, his hand wrapped around one of her arms. Panic rose in her chest and without thought punched the God in the face. The man fell on his bum. Teddy cried in fright. Heather gasped when she realized what she did.

“O-Oh dear Merlin! Are you alright?” She fell on her knees and picked up her godson. She looked the baby over, relived when she saw that he was okay. The baby held onto her and cried in her shoulder. “I-I didn’t mean to hit you like that. You grabbed me out of nowhere- a-and the war, I- oh for the love of- I’m so sorry!”

Hades groaned as he sat up, with one of his hands on his nose. With a _crack_ , it was fixed, but there was a small trail of blood that ran down it.

“I forgot that you were in a war.” He touched his nose and winced. “Who taught you to hit like that?”

Heather’s smile was full of nervousness. She half lied:

“My cousin in this life taught me.”

The God looked at her with suspiciousness. He had seen enough souls, and lived long enough, to realize when one lied. But he wasn’t allowed to ponder for long, because his hand was grabbed and he was helped to get up. He wasn’t even allowed to say a word, before an exhausted, sleeping Teddy was placed in his arms. His mother ordered him:

“Go and take Teddy to wherever you will be taking us. I will be safe.”

Hades’ mouth dropped. He couldn’t leave her here with Cronus of all people.

“But-”

“Go! I have an emergency portkey on me at all times. He can’t follow you to the hideout, when he’s here because of me.”

It was no brainers the reason Cronus was outside the 12 Grimmauld Place. Hades didn’t like this one bit, but he understood where the young woman came from. He looked down at the baby boy in his arms, and decided that it was better to get him out of there. While he didn’t know if Cronus still had the habit to eat babies, he didn’t want to test the Fates. His black eyes met his mother’s with a pleading look. He said:

“Be safe. I’ll find you later.”

With a nod, he disappeared.

-ooOOoo-

“Hey Hades- why do you have a baby? It’s not yours is it? Where’s Grandma?”

Hermes asked of his uncle in shock and confusion.

“Hermes, do me a favour and be quiet.” The God of the Dead ordered. “This is mommy dearest’s godson. I have to take him to Persephone. I’ll get your grandma later, just don’t say anything. Last thing I need is Zeus and Hera on my tail.”

The thought almost made the purple skinned man wince. Those two may have grown out of their habit of jumping to conclusions, but sometimes it came back in the worst time. They did _not_ need it right now. Not when he has left their mother with Cronus. The Messenger of the Gods nodded. His eyes were wide.

“Ah… I suggest doing it fast, then. We’re expecting her to arrive real soon.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me take a moment of your time to thank each and every one of you that gave this story a chance. On my blog, it's not popular, at all. I barely get any reads. Truth be told, I felt really down because of that. I have so much passion for this story and barely anyone reads this story. But I never imagined that this story will be my most popular story among everything. So I wish, again, to thank everyone for the support that you've given me, even if it's just by reading this story. I hope you'll enjoy the future chapters as much as these last few. Happy reading everyone! :D

Heather took in a deep breath. Around her wrist was a bracelet that acted as an emergency portkey. If need be, she’d say the password and teleport to the Weasley Manor. She was lucky that the house she stood in had spells that kept uninvited people out. It was a good thing that she gave her mother the address to pass it on to whoever picked her up. Hades wouldn’t have stood in her living room without it. The spells were strong even against Gods and Titans. It may not cover up the auras as well, but it was enough.

The reason why she had Hades leave with Teddy was because of two reasons. One, she didn’t want her godson to get hurt in case something happened. Two, she had to face her husband, alone. He had to know that she was alive and well. She has not forgiven her mother, children and grandchildren for their choices. It was cruel what they did. She wasn’t surprised with most of the divine beings, but her mother and oldest son should have known better. They _knew_ her suspicions, and even her mother agreed that something was up. To leave a man, alone, in such a place with the thought his wife was _dead_ was beyond cruel. Heather saw what Azkaban did to her godfather. She has been around those damn dementors. To get surrounded by them has broken Sirius’ mind on some level. As for Cronus, from her memories, there were many times his aura sought hers out for comfort. For an ‘evil’ tough man, to have done that, she could only imagine what it was like in Tartarus.

This led to her decision, and she knew that she’d be safe. This old house had spells, charms and runes all over it. One of the spells canceled out mind controlled curses for as long as the individual was within the house. This would keep down whatever ancient curse that was on the Titan. For now, at least. She only needed to get him inside, first. Who knew how long he had control over himself before the curse took over.

Heather’s heart quickened as she took a step to stand on the doorstep. She connected with the runes of the house, and came to the conclusion that there was nobody nearby. She took a deep breath and spoke in a loud, clear voice:

“12 Grimmauld Place”

Gold eyes rested on her in an instant. Heather’s body shook, in what, she didn’t know. Was she excited to lay her eyes on her husband, after so long? Was she terrified of what he could do to her? No, that latter one couldn’t be it. His eyes were gold, not red. She had only good memories of the gold eyes, unlike with the red. The flashbacks of whenever he had red eyes sent shivers down her spine. They reminded her of Voldemort’s, both filled with nothing but darkness and hatred.

Heather cleared her throat and waved him over.

“Come”

With that, she turned around and walked back inside. Cronus straightened his back as he followed her. When the door closed behind them, Heather relaxed. She didn’t bother to take him out of the corridor, neither having enough patience to go the extra mile. The witch turned around to face the Titan. His golden eyes studied her up and down, but not in a perverted manner. They were more… confused.

“Rhea, what is the meaning of this? Why are you a mortal?”

Cronus couldn’t fathom what drove his wife to take on this form. Was that where she was this whole time, for almost _4,000 years_? But that didn’t make sense. A mortal didn’t live for that long. The longest they have lived were centuries, and that was when he ruled over this world.

Heather felt a familiarity in the way he said her name. In this life, for so long, she knew herself as nothing more than Heather Potter. Soon after, the Girl-Who-Lived. Right before and after the war, much more cruel or praising names. But now, aside from her mother, nobody else addressed her in her old name. To be called that name by the one person everyone wanted her to stay away from was… different. It was different in a good way. _I need to burn those romance crappy books that Hermione keeps around._ Only _one_ time the witch read through one in curiosity. She hated the way it made her feel like she lost something. It appears that it affected her even after the stupid book was burned. Good thing Hermione didn’t like that book. Ron patted her on the back in gratitude for destroying that thing.

_Heather, focus. He’s waiting for an answer._ The small voice in her mind snapped her out of it. Now that she escaped her train of thought, she realized that Cronus stood far closer. Only a few inches of space were between the duos. His hand brushed against her long black bangs, to show off the old lightning shaped scar. She flinched at the touch on instinct. The last time anybody touched it was Voldemort. The only memories she had of it being touched were that of pain, and the dark wizard enjoyed every minute that he brought her pain. But it didn’t come, she realized and she should have expected that. The scar never hurt again. It didn’t ever since she killed Voldemort. After the soul in there was destroyed, the scar healed a bit throughout the last number of months. It was now thin, but still visible. Anger radiated off of the Titan. He growled:

“Who did this to you? What happened?”

Without a thought, Heather placed a hand on his chest like many times in the past to calm him down. Only now has she realized that she was a good foot shorter than she was in her first life. Before, she stood almost the same height as him, only a few inches off. Now, the top of her head barely reached his chin. _I blame this on the Dursley’s._ She thought with a mental sigh. This was not going to be fun. She _hated_ being so short. She started to answer his first two questions:

“I have grown depressed after you were imprisoned. I was pushed aside, like our brothers and sisters. Only I was treated with more respect, because I’m their mother. But even then I was only good for looking after our grandchildren.” Her hand on his chest turned into a shaky fist. “I felt so _useless_ and powerless for a long time.” The hand was grabbed by a larger one, and pulled down to rest on their side. The fingers intertwined. It sent all kinds of old, forgotten feelings to pulse through the witch. “I hated it. I didn’t know what to do with myself anymore. One day, mom and Hades came to me, _worried_. They were the only ones that noticed something was off. They gave me a chance to live in many mortal lives, with no memories, until you were freed. They wanted me to find happiness again. But if I knew the way they treated you afterwards… the pain that it’d cause you! _I’m sorry_.”

Heather didn’t know what else to say. There was no amount of apologizes she could give Cronus for abandoning him in search of her own happiness. This was why she hated being selfish. Bad things _always_ happened when she wanted to be selfish. With the Dursley’s, it were beatings and being locked in the cupboard for days on end with no food and water. In the Wizarding World, it was even worse. Sometimes being selfish has led to someone’s death, like Sirius. Other times it was led to pain and suffering. This time, she has let her husband down. While she couldn’t forgive her divine family, she could not, more so, forgive herself. The least she could have done was gone to Tartarus and let him know of her plans first, but she didn’t. She took the chance without a thought. What kind of a wife was she?

Heather didn’t dare look up. She feared the look that he’d give her if she did. The man grumbled instead:

“I’m glad that you took the chance.”

The witch looked up at him in shock.

“W-What?”

“Damnit Rhea, you really believe that I want my own wife to sit home, alone, in depression? I’m not angry. I would have rather you took the chance. But it would have been nice to know what you were up to. No, what I _am_ angry about is _that_.” He pointed at her lightning scar. He repeated one of his questions. “What _happened_?”

“It’s a long story, and we can talk about it later.” Heather realized, as she remembered that Hades would come back any minute now. “I promise, when this is all over and I’ll find a cure for you, we can sit down and have a long chat. All you need to know is that I was in a war, a big one. I led one side to defeat the other. We won and it left scars. It’s over, so this conversation can wait.”

Cronus found a few things wrong with what she said. What did she mean about finding a cure for _him_? What war? What did she mean that she _led_ one side of the war and won? There was a reason why he forced her to stay out of the war between him and their children. She may be a fighter, but he didn’t want her to suffer the aftermath of the war. It would have crushed her to having to choose between her children and husband. It appeared that he failed on some level. He kept her out of the war, but she entered a different one that he had no idea about. But like she said, they could talk about it later. Right now, he wanted to know what she meant about a cure.

“What cure?”

“Cronus, be honest, have you noticed something off about yourself? Especially now, when you’re in my house?”

The way she worded it confused the Titan. What did she meant by _that_? There was something off-? Well, when he thought about it, yes. He had little control over his actions when it came to certain topics. Those topics were his throne, the Gods and now those damn teenagers. When he got his control back, he always had the mother of all headaches. It was rare when there was a relief. But in this house, he felt it. He felt the relief and he noticed how his temper hasn’t gotten out of control yet. It could even compare it to before the fight with his… wait a second. Cronus scowled with darkness at the thought. He asked of his wife:

“Where are you going with this?”

Heather took that as a positive sign, because he didn’t question her anymore about the cure. He must have realized it, if the darkness in his eyes said anything. That darkness was rare, and showed up only when he thought of their father. Her hand in his tightened and she nodded.

“I believe that Ouranos placed more than one curse on you. Your actions don’t make sense whenever certain topics come up. You aren’t like our siblings, who would have killed their children if something was wrong. We have talked about what we wanted from our family. It’s not like you to have eaten 5 of our 6 children. And you never were crazy about keeping your throne. It was mother that came to you with a mission to kill Ouranos. She didn’t say anything about taking over his throne. And your eyes change from gold to red, whenever you start acting weird.”

“That…!” Cronus growled. He was so angry that he couldn’t say what he thought about their father. It made sense. _Everything_ made sense, at that moment. The Titan turned his attention back to his wife. He demanded of her for more information. “When did you start to suspect all this?”

Heather felt the guilt built up at the question. Her shoulders heaved down and her eyes looked down at their feet. She whispered:

“I suspected it for a long time. It wasn’t until the kids put you in Tartarus that I started to research a cure.” She couldn’t even utter another apology. It wouldn’t fix anything between them. If she has kept herself together, she could have found a cure and gotten rid of the curses a long time ago. But she didn’t. “You’re wrong, Cronus, I _am_ selfish. I chose the easy road and let you suffer.”

The Titan looked down at her, no word left his lips. His other hand reached up, and Heather flinched as she expected to get hit. Her mind knew that he wouldn’t do something like that, but she was so used to it that she couldn’t stop. The hand tangled in her hair and closed the gap between them. Her head got tugged under his chin. His thumb rubbed the back of her neck, which calmed her. He muttered:

“Idiot, there’s nothing that we can do about it now. Stop blaming yourself over every little thing. You know what I think about that.”

The way that she felt in his arms, after all these years, could be describes in few words. Safety, relaxation and love. Those things she never, for as long as she remembered in this life, experienced. Heather’s shoulders shook up and down. The hand that was in his let go and she wrapped her arms around his waist. For once, for as long as she could remember, the witch cried. She cried for the pain that was inflicted upon her for so many years, in both this life and her first as Rhea. She cried for the deaths and injuries that she caused. She cried on the behalf of her husband. He suffered for so long and yet was seen as nothing but a villain, rather than a cursed man. The witch hated how her old personality was brought over through her memories. But she couldn’t hate them at this moment. Even the strongest broke at some point. She has been broken for far too long and was not given the time to let her pain show through her tears.

Cronus noticed with a frown her own odd behaviour. If he could, he’d use one of his lesser known powers to read her mind and figure out what caused her to act so tough in this life. The thought of possibilities made him furious, but he could not do anything now but comfort his wife. His free arm wrapped around her much smaller body and held her close. In her first life as his wife, his Rhea, she always showed what she felt. If she was mad, her smile said it all. If she was happy, she light up like the sun. If she was hurt, she’d cry. Of course, as a Titaness, she learned to control her emotions. But the point was that she didn’t hide behind a tough persona. No, it was him that did that. But in this life, it was as if she took on his role. He has that persona for a reason. It was to protect himself and keep both him and his wife grounded. He went through a lot of trial and error, with lots of pain mixed in there, to learn that. It was not easy, but he did it. So what happened to his wife?!

At some point, her cries died down. Her small body leaned against his, and from her slow, deep breathing he concluded that she exhausted herself to the point she fell asleep. Cronus picked her up bridal style. A dark expression appeared when he felt how much she weighted in his arms. This wasn’t right. The thoughts and possibilities only grew clearer, which got him to make a decision. He walked down the hall and the first door led to the living room. There, he rested his wife on the couch and kneeled down beside her body. With a hand on her head, he closed his eyes and concentrated. The only memories he saw were that of her childhood. He stopped when he reached a memory of a small island and a tall man visiting. Only a few minutes passed before his golden eyes opened, to show a fire of rage. No, rage did not even cover what he thought about what he saw. Livid was a good place to start. He stared at the worn out disgusting glasses that rested on her face. Without a thought, they were taken off slowly so to not wake the young woman up. The Titan clenched his hand around them and burned them out of existence. He stood up and said with a calm voice:

“Are you not going to greet your father?”

A form stepped out of the shadows, to show Hades. The purple skinned man stared at his father and watched his every move. The God’s hands clenched into tight fists. He was ready to summon a sword to fight off the Titan in front of him.

“Step away from her.”

“Really now, is that anyway to greet your father? After all, the last time I saw you was before Rhea disappeared.” If Cronus did not have the self-control that he did, he’d have slammed his son against the wall and attempt to choke him. How _dare_ his own son keep this from him? All those years of worrying, trying to get out and to come to a conclusion that his wife was dead. For all of that pain, she was alive and well. And his eldest son knew it all this time. He had every right to want to choke the bastard. “It would have been nice to know what happened to my wife.”

Hades didn’t flinch at the obvious raging comment, though it was told in a calm voice. He couldn’t show any weakness in front of this man. He repeated:

“Step away from her.”

“Tch, tch, tch,” His father taunted him with a fake disappointed look. “ _You_ are the one that has been watching us for the last while. You would know by watching us that I would never hurt her.”

“You ate us, your own children. What do you think you did to her?”

The God of the Dead asked in an outrage. He didn’t deny the accusation. He has stood in the darkness for a while and watched them. The minute he dropped the baby with his excited but confused wife, with a short explanation, he came back. The God panicked when he saw his father inside the house. He thought the Titan would attack and kill the witch. But he didn’t. Hades stood in shock as he watched the interaction that appeared alien to him. It wasn’t like his and Persephone’s relationship. The God and Goddess showed every way they could that they were head over heels in love with each other. The conversation the Titans had and the way they interacted showed that it was as deep, if not deeper, than his and his wife’s love. When his mother cried, he could do nothing but continue to watch as Cronus comforted her in his own, silent way.

Now that the shock worn off, Hades didn’t know _what_ he thought. He remembered the conversation from so long ago, between him, Gaia and Rhea. He remembered the theories and stories of a man that was so different from the one he refused to call his father. Even though he showed support, he hasn’t understood the full weight of the situation. Not until now. For so long he saw this man as evil, because of what he has done. But from the interaction, his views and the evidence conflicted. None of this made any sense. Even the reply he got from Cronus shocked him to the core.

“I was not in the right mind when I did it. And until she finds a cure, and you can see how I _really_ am, I can’t prove it to any of you.” Cronus made his way to the exit, only to stop at the doorway of the living room that led into the hallway. “I will be sending a few mortals your way, God of the Underworld. I _expect_ you to judge them for the disgusting worms that they are.”

“W-What? Why?”

“Those worms have taken in your mother in this life at the age of 1. They have abused her for all her early childhood. If you don’t put them where they belong, _I_ will give them what I consider justice.” His golden eyes met his son’s black pair. “I am not above killing those that harm my wife. Take care of her, _properly_ this time. If I find out that you mistreat her again, I won’t need the curse’s motivation to get rid of all of you.” The Titan looked once more back at his wife. “And get her eye sight fixed. I will not have my wife dependent on glasses.”

With that, Cronus left. Hades blinked several time. Well, this was a once in a lifetime conversation. The God turned to his mother’s sleeping form and made his way to her. He picked her up like his father, bridal style. He frowned when he felt how light she was. He’d need to look at her life profile for more information. But if Cronus was right, then the son would have some fun dealing with the mortals. Maybe the rest of the family would like to join in. But first, get his mother to the Gods and Goddesses’ hideout. Second, get Ascelpius to heal her eyes. Third, never mention that he allowed Cronus to be so close to their mother and grandmother. He valued his life.


	5. Chapter 5

Heather was a confused witch. She didn’t open her eyes yet, but instead allowed her other senses to map out her surroundings. She was in a bed that felt like heaven with the softest pillow in the world underneath her head. That was odd in itself, because she didn’t have such a bed. The closest bed that she could point out that was this nice was the one at Hogwarts. But that couldn’t be it. There was no way that she was in Hogwarts. Another thing that she noticed was that Cronus was not anywhere near her. His aura was far away, untainted for the time being and felt a little too pleased. _Why is he so happy?_ Heather thought with suspicion. _Is it because now he knows that I’m alive and well? No, it couldn’t be that. There’s a big accent of smug and accomplishment in that aura of his._

So if she wasn’t at her house or Hogwarts _or_ the Weasley Manor, where the hell was she?

Heather snapped her emerald eyes open and found a woman with pointy ears fixing her bed sheets. Okay, there were two things wrong with this picture. Why the hell was her eyesight good all of a sudden? There was no weight whatsoever on her nose to indicate that she wore those 10 pounds glasses. Yet she saw crystal clear. And why the hell was there a woman, with pointy ears no less, who appeared to tug her in?

“Bloody hell”

Heather muttered as she pulled the blanket over her head and buried her face in the pillow. There was a feminine high pitched gasp. Right after that there were footsteps that faded into the distance. _Why do the Fates hate me so much? Aren’t they supposed to be my family or something? I’ll have to kick their arses across the universe sometime soon for all the bullshit they put me through._ The witch vowed.

“This is a dream. No, this is a nightmare. Good night.”

Heather grumbled before she tried to suffocate herself with the pillow. She bet that Cronus decided to pull a prank on her. But he wasn’t one for pranks. It couldn’t be George Weasley, the renowned prankster, as he couldn’t match this. So maybe it wasn’t a prank. Her brilliant mind finally settled with a nightmare. As she thought that, there were footsteps that thundered to the direction of her room. Damnit, where was her wand? And couldn’t they be quieter? They sounded like a herd of elephants. Even though they sounded to be getting closer, she could tell that they were still far enough. The hallway must be huge to be able to allow echo to travel.

Heather moved a bit and realized something else, her shoulders felt naked. That couldn’t be right. _Don’t tell me…_ all the blood on her face drained from her already pale skin. The witch looked down at her body and discovered two things. One, to her relief, she had clothes on, but not the ones she had on back home. This led to the second discovery, which was that she wore a royal purple coloured dress. It wasn’t just any dress, but one that looked like it came from Ancient Greece but with a modern twist. Her sleeves were off shoulders, which explained the feeling of them being naked.

“What… the… hell…?”

Heather voiced as she kicked off the blanket and got up to get a better look. The dress went down to her ankles and hugged her upper torso. _Okay… this is awkward…_ the witch thought with self-conscious. There was a reason why she wore at least one size bigger shirts. If there weren’t any, then for sure nothing that hugged her body. It was to hide the aftermath of being starved by the hands of the Dursley’s. If not for invisibility spells, she would have worn long sleeves at all times. _Wait a second, my arms!_ Heather thought with panic as she saw the heavy scarred tissues. The giant bite mark from the Basilisk glared at her. Even the ‘I must not tell lies’ looked a bit brighter. The invisibility spells that she had on them were taken off. She had to hide it all, before everyone saw the scars. Though, she couldn’t do much with the one that changed her into this dress. It was clear that the person already saw them. With a quick look around, the witch was relieved to have found her wand. It rested on the marble nightstand next to her giant king sized bed. She all but dived to her wand and casted invisibility spell on the scars. They disappeared right before her eyes.

“Thank Merlin”

Heather breathed in relief. It was right on time, too, because she had guests. Her emerald eyes widened when she saw who the people were. They were her children and grandchildren, but most of them looked so… old. Many of them had elderly features, unlike the youthful faces from her memories. One of the more youthful looking ones was Persephone. She held a distressed Teddy in her arms. Unlike with her husband, the baby didn’t fuss in her arms so much that there was a chance that he’d fall. But from the dried tear trails, he still cried.

“Teddy”

Heather made her way to her godson and granddaughter. The Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld handed the baby over with no word. She only smiled as she watched the godmother and godson reunite. Teddy’s pacified dropped from his mouth. He cried out with fresh tears.

“Hea! Hea!”

“Heather is right here sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere, promise.”

The godmother replied. Her heart broke at his reaction. The second he was in her arms, his tiny arms wrapped around her neck and he cried into her collarbone. She rocked him while rubbing his back. Guilt settled in her gut for making him cry again in such a short time. What kind of a godmother was she to do this to her baby godson? Was she any better than her aunt in this matter? _No, I’m not like her. I at least take care of Teddy and give him love._ Heather rebelled against the thoughts. To make a point of how distressed he was, Teddy’s hair changed to blue. _Oh man, where is Molly when you need her?_ Even after the months of having the baby in her custody, there were still a lot of things that she needed to learn about babies and how to take care of one. If not for Molly, Heather would have been lost 99% of the time. _Out of all the memories I could get. Out of all the lives I’ve led. I just so happened to get memories_ only _from the one where I didn’t raise human babies._ The crying died down, thank Merlin. But Teddy still hasn’t let her go, not that she minded.

This meant that it was time to pay attention to her guests.

There was heavy silence in the air, as nobody knew what to say. Most of the Gods and Goddesses were too busy staring at the duo with wide eyes. Persephone glared at some of them for doing that. Then there was good old Aphrodite. The woman looked ready to smother the duo in a hug. _Wait a second…_ Heather’s thought as she looked down at her dress and found that it was almost identical to what the Goddess of Love and Beauty wore. _Oh, you got to be kidding me. The one person that had to see all those scars had to be_ her _?_ This made Heather panic on the inside. The woman was an airhead and she doubted that she has changed that much if her looks said anything. This meant only one thing. If the Goddess didn’t say anything by now, then she’d be ready to blabber what she saw soon enough.

“Oh! You two are so adorable. Come here.”

Aphrodite squealed and hugged the duo like her life depended on it. Teddy was lucky that she was not in the position to squish him, but his godmother wasn’t so lucky. Heather gasped for air.

“Aphro…dite… can’t… breath…”

“What are you doing? Are you trying to kill her?!”

Ares barked in panic. He walked over and pulled the Goddess off of the woman they saw as Rhea reincarnated in human form. The Goddess of Love and Beauty pouted and crossed her arms.

“At least I’m saying hello, unlike you. And look how gorgeous she looks now that I put on the dress. It brings out her green eyes so well, too.”

This snapped everyone out of their daze.

“What did you do to my clothes?”

Heather demanded. From the lack of reaction from the others, they didn’t know about her scars. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. The Goddess _hmph._

“I got rid of those horrid abominations.”

“I just bought the shirt and the pants were a gift!”

“Then I’ll need to teach you fashion, grandmamma.” Heather was ready to explode and show why people feared her temper. Her mind raced through all kinds of things that she could do to the Goddess as revenge. “And we need to talk about those horrid sc-”

“ _Colovaria_ ”

Heather waved her wand and pointed at Aphrodite’s hair. It turned into neon green. It was dead silent. Then one person snorted and soon laughter followed. The Goddess looked in confusion at everyone. When she realized that one of them pointed at her hair, she brought her braid forward to look at it. To Aphrodite’s horror, she shrieked and fainted. The one that caught her was her husband, Hephaestus. The man just sighed and carried her out of there. _Mission accomplished, disaster averted._ The witch thought with a mental cheer. Much to her amusements, Teddy changed his hair colour to neon green as well. A giggle left his lips and he clapped his hands.

“That’s right Teddy, nobody messes with the second generation Marauders.” Heather cooed. The 8 month old babbled in his baby language with a big smile. “I know. They would be so proud of us. But maybe I should have done polka dots as well, but orange.”

“I don’t think that’d be a good idea, mother. You don’t have to live with her.”

One of the Gods said as he stepped forward. Heather blinked as she tried to compare the face to what she remembered.

“Zeus…?” She asked with hesitation. The God nodded. “I… I have to apologize. I got my memories back for only a week or so. I am still trying to figure out what’s what. And so many of you changed… so much.”

“We understand. Gaia and Hades explained it to us what was going on when you first left.” Zeus explained, looking ashamed. “We’re sorry. We haven’t noticed anything amiss. We grew so powerful, so quickly, that it went to our heads. And we forgot about the things that mattered, you.”

Hera stepped forward, her eyes looked old. She bowed her head a bit to the witch with respect.

“Mother, we really are sorry. You have been there for us and held so much patience for when we did mistakes. We came to you ranting on many subjects, and only once in a while have we cared enough to ask of your health. We owe you so much.”

Heather didn’t know what she thought. Even Teddy was confused about what was going on, as his big ever changing coloured eyes stared at everyone. He looked up at his godmother, who looked at everyone. Everything started to dawn on her, at last. Things changed so much, without once stopping, that she went along with it out of habit. But now there everyone stood, in the middle of the room with expectations. Expectations she knew that she was not going to meet, at least in this lifetime, if ever. Heather decided that she needed to stop the rollercoaster. If she didn’t, things would get too overwhelming. The last thing she needed was her to make rash decisions that could jeopardize so many things. Her memories weren’t enough, to figure out if she wanted to forgive them or not. From the memories, her old Rhea self would have forgiven them as a mother did to her children. But after this life, things weren’t so easy.

“I… I need some time. If possible, I’d like to go settle in.”

The Gods and Goddesses looked disappointed at the lack of forgiveness. They did not expect the responds.

“I’ll get Jay and the others. School should be done by-”

Hermes stated and already began to fly with the use of his shoes. But Heather stopped him.

“It’s okay, really. I’m a witch and I have a house elf. I’ll just have her take me there.”

“Or I can take you there.” A woman that Heather did not recognize stepped forward. The witch looked at her direction in confusion, as she tried to remember who she was. The face and body form looked familiar, but the hair threw her off. “I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Athena.” The Goddess introduced herself. _A-Athena?_ Heather thought with surprise. _What happened to her hair? It used to be so long. Now it’s so short. I barely recognized her._ “I’m the head of the dormitory that the current group of heroes live in. I can teleport us there.”

“Okay”

Heather nodded in agreement. The two held hands and the Goddess, now awakened Titaness and baby wizard disappeared.

-ooOOoo-

The minute Heather was out of the God’s hideout, she could breathe at last. Her body relaxed and she all but collapsed on her new bed in her new bedroom, which she’d need to make some changes to. Everything in the room appeared expensive and top of the notch. It was of no surprise, as it appeared that her children’s old habits came back, much to Heather’s annoyance. The bedroom must be one of the bigger ones, as it fit both her and Teddy with surprising comfort. The baby wizard was put down for his second nap of the day, though he fussed a lot.

Now that she was away from all the chaos, Heather allowed her thoughts to consume her. One of them made her frown with worrisome. She got placed in a house, with heroes who had the job to look after her. From what she understood, they were no more than mere teenagers. The one thing in the world that the witch never wanted to happen again was for teenagers to fight a greater evil. This time, they fought against Cronus, who was a cursed man. This led to one thing that bothered her. They placed her, the _wife_ of Cronus, in a house with heroes that fought _against_ the Titan.

Was this a joke or something? Heather saw disaster coming a mile away! This was poor planning on the God’s part, and from the feel of the magic around the building, there were runes that weren't all that strong. They did just enough to protect the inhabitants, but did not hide them. No, it was not good planning at all. Did they plan to hide her or lure Cronus out? She already knew what she thought about the first part. But the second… it sent shivers of anger down her spine. Her relationship with the two generations was just fine. It could be worse, but it could be a whole lot better. At least, that was from what she saw in the memories. And from recent interactions, only one appeared to have been close to her. So it wouldn’t surprise her if most of them decided that, since she was back, she may as well be of some use. It was like her first life all over again.

_But they were sincere in their apology_ , the small voice tried to reason with her. But Heather wouldn’t hear of it. She has gone to war, died and came back to life. In the end of the day, she won. It took more than an idiot to win a war. It had to be someone with at least average intelligence, but with much skill. If can be, they’d be surrounded by other individuals that filled in the gaps. No thanks to her whole life big adventure, the witch was not a trusting person. Just because they said they were sorry, didn’t mean that they were. She dealt with Slytherins, Voldemort and was one herself, deep inside. She knew all the tricks in the book and saw manipulation a mile away. She still hasn’t forgiven Dumbledore for doing that. Yet, these were the Greek Gods and Goddesses. The difference was that they weren’t known for being honest or trustworthy from the start. One could tell when he or she read the myths and legends. That was what Heather did, among other things for the last few days. She read most of the myths and legends. From her memories, she knew that most of those were true, if not twigged a bit. But they were true nonetheless.

So why didn’t Heather just go and be with Cronus, if this was the way she thought of her children and grandchildren? It wouldn’t have worked. The Titan was still under a curse and could switch personalities in a snap of a finger. This could lead to many problems. It also could lead to danger for Teddy. Normal Cronus was one thing, but cursed Cronus? No way. She was not about to put her godson in that danger, when she knew that it was not safe. And the cursed version of the Titan would have seen him as a threat and have gotten rid of the 8 months old.

The decision to go with the Gods instead was the better choice of the two. Of course, Heather could have hidden them in 12 Grimmauld Place forever, but that wasn’t a good idea in itself.

This meant that Heather had to play nice and by their rules, for now. But the second they hurt her or Teddy, the gloves were off.

-ooOOoo-

Heather did not meet her supposed protectors until the next day. Not until they returned from school. She has kept to her room, changed it to her liking and had Winky bring food and drinks for both her and Teddy. The witch was not ready to face them, as her nerves grew worse. The worse possibilities ran through her mind at every free moment. For a young woman that could care less for how others saw her, this was not an option. While at Hogwarts she could avoid most of the student population. Here, it was not possible in this small, 3 storey high building. They could either get along or hate each other. If the latter happened, Heather would have to return to Britain, whether the others liked it or not. She could not raise Teddy in a hateful environment. She already took enough of a big risk to live with him in an unprotected household.

That, in itself, was unacceptable. Heather had to do something about the protection, or else they’d all be in danger. So she took the matter into her own hands, since the Gods and Goddesses didn’t. They may believe that the teenagers could protect themselves. Fore after all, they were heroes. The witch didn’t believe it. If they found out about Greek mythology being reality and started their training not that long ago, they weren’t ready to protect themselves. Sure they could protect themselves in a group, but what if they were alone? No, it was still unacceptable. So without wasting a moment, she grabbed the notes that Hermione gave her. The notes contained all her research of the runes in 12 Grimmauld Place and what she added. The notes were months old, which dated back to the end of the Second Wizarding World. Heather could not help but muse how even though Hermione was in Hogwarts, she still helped in some way.

With Teddy placed in a baby holder on her back, she studied the notes. After that, she carved the runes inside and outside the building. It was a slow progress, which took her at least 2 hours to do. If she was an expert in it, or had a lot of knowledge like Hermione, then it would have taken at least half an hour. The problem was that if she didn’t copy the runes with perfection, it wouldn’t work. And she didn’t have the steadiest of hands. Athena was kind enough to help her test them all out. By the time Heather finished the last rune, the Goddess of Wisdom finished to prepare their late lunch.

That was when the group came in.

“Ah…” The muscular teenager of the group voiced out, as he was the first to notice her. “Hi?”

“Hello”

Heather grunted as she stood up from the doorway that led to the backyard. Her back hurt from the kneeling for a long time and the extra weight. Teddy napped in peace as he has not yet taken his first nap. The witch was happy for the small miracle of silence. She couldn’t leave him unsupervised, not when Athena has yet to prove to her that she could be trusted 100%. Due to that, there were some periods where she was distracted by the unhappy baby. From the sleepless night yesterday for both of them, the baby needed all the rest that he could get, and Heather needed more coffee.

Speak of the devil, Athena handed to the witch her fourth coffee of the day.

“Here you go, as you asked. But you do know that it’s unhealthy to drink so much coffee in a day, right?”

“I didn’t sleep at all last night, so give me a break.”

Heather grumbled and took a seep from the mug.

“Don’t you have those sleepless potions or something?”

“Do you know how disgusting potions are? Teddy wouldn’t take them no matter what and I decided to use the time to study.”

“You can sweeten the potions.”

Heather snorted.

“I can tell you right now, an old professor of mine would lose his pretty little head over that comment. And you’d have lost at least 500 house points. You’d also gain at _least_ 2 month worth of detention.” She sighed with fake nostalgia. “But then he’d turn it all on me and double the punishment. Good times.”

“Uh, I don’t mean to ruin your conversation or anything, but who are you? And why do you have a baby?”

One of the other male teenagers asked. From the way everyone stood behind him with ease, the witch could tell that he was their leader. The witch and Goddess both realized that they have yet to pay attention to the group of teenagers. They all looked confused and lost. All the fears from last night disappeared at this moment, due to lack of energy to fuel it. Without a thought, Heather stepped forward and stretched out her free hand to shake his.

“Hello, my name is Heather. Heather Potter-Black, pleasure to meet you. And this is Edward Remus Lupin, but everyone that I know calls him Teddy. He’s my godson.”

“My name is Jay.” The brown headed adolescent introduced himself as he shook her hand. Once he let go, he introduced her to the others. “These are Atlanta, Archie, Theresa, Herry, Odie and Neil.” Each person that was pointed out greeted her with either a nod or a ‘hello’. Jay turned to her and looked over at Teddy. “Godson? You don’t look that much older than us.”

Heather raised an eyebrow at the comments as she continued to drink her coffee. She turned to her granddaughter.

“What did you tell them to expect of me?”

“That your name is Rhea and that they’re tasked to protect you at all times.”

_Of bloody course_ _they would do this to me,_ the witch thought with a sigh.

“Okay, let me reintroduce myself. I am Rhea, but since I decided to reincarnate as a mortal with the worse luck in the world, my name is Heather Potter-Black. I’m 18 years old in this life, but my real age… that’s a good question.” She paused. “Huh… that’s a brain teaser. Anyways, don’t bother worrying about protecting me. I don’t need protection. I can do that on my own just fine. So let us have a good sportsmanship and get along, okay? Fantastic. Oh, is that bacon? Thanks Athena.”

Heather took her plate without another look to the group. She was hungry, tired and could care less about many things. She did nothing but stare in space with dark circles under her eyes, a coffee in one hand and a fork in the other as she ate. The Goddess of Wisdom only shook her head at the actions, but could not blame the witch. From the small talk that the two had to reintroduce themselves to each other, it might be nightmares from a war. Heather has warned her of them, as she knew that her waking up could disrupt the household. Though, she promised that she put up a silence spell, so that she wouldn’t wake anyone up. Most of the conversation made the Goddess worried and make a mental note to tell the other Gods. They already expected a lot from the Mother of the Gods, so they needed to tone it down. Athena turned to look at the hero group and looked amused by their reaction. A look of recognition spread from one hero to another. They all took a moment to let the information sink in before they all shouted in union.

“ _What? You’re_ that _Rhea?_ ”

Teddy woke up from the screaming and cried in confusion and fright. Not only that, but he cried right into his godmother’s ear. Heather sent the paralyzed group a look that promised death. It sent shivers down both their and Athena’s spines. She undid the clip on her chest and caught Teddy. Once she brought him to her chest, she rocked him and asked of Athena.

“Do me a favour and make a bottle of formula for Teddy.”

“Of course, grandmother.”

The Goddess replied and went to do it. One of the red headed females of the group, Theresa, stepped forward with an apologetic look.

“We’re sorry, Rhea. We didn’t mean to scare him like that. Is he going to be okay?” There was a collection of gasps as they watched Teddy’s hair turned blue. “What the-?”

“Oh he’ll be fine, just frightened. Just watch. He’ll get something in his stomach and will go back to his giggly self. Also, call me Heather. And Teddy is a Metamorphmagus.” She stopped talking so to accept the bottle of formula from Athena. Teddy quietened down when he was offered the formula. He drank it with no protest. Heather looked at the others with a tired look. “Look, we can play 21 questions later. But right now Athena and I need to eat and at the same time entertain Teddy. Can you hold your questions until then?”

The group looked at each other and then at their leader. Jay ran his hand through his hair, before he nodded.

“Alright, we need to get some things done.”

“Homework?” Heather asked with an amused look. The smile only grew at the guilty smile looks that everyone shared. “Don’t worry, I’ve been there.”

With relief from the young woman, the others left.

“They’re good kids. I’m glad to see that you’re getting along.”

Athena commented as she sat down to eat. Heather sent her a nod while she paid attention to Teddy. _For now, at least._

-ooOOoo-

Heather had to take the Invigoration Draught, which did its job. It gave her a boost of energy that even coffee didn’t provide. The reason why she hasn’t taken it before was because she forgot about it. After a sleepless night, it was hard to remember most things. If not for the potion, she’d have pushed the conversation to the next day after a good night sleep. Teddy didn’t need it, as it seemed that he used his baby power to generate his own energy. The witch was rather jealous of her godson, though she’d never admit it to anybody.

For a serious conversation, Heather didn’t appear like she took it as such. Not with her on the floor, leg crossed, going between keeping Teddy close to her and playing with him. Now that he could crawl, he used his newfound energy to go everywhere that he wanted. If not for a few toys that lay on the ground, the witch would have spent most of her time chasing after him. She was so happy to have taken the draught.

Teddy squealed and clapped his hands in excitement as his stuff toy wolf ran around him. It was a shared gift from Ron and Hermione. The toy wasn’t all that dangerous. All it did was run around and ‘wrestle’ with its owner. When they say ‘wrestle’, it was more so it bounced on the baby. The 8 month old chased after the toy as best as he could, but it ran around him in circles. So, neither of the two went that far. The group of heroes watched the toy with amazement. They couldn’t figure out what kind of Godly power the witch used to get it to act so lifelike.

“Okay,” Heather clapped her hands and rubbed them. “time to play 21 questions. But I’m pretty sure that it’s you lot that have questions for me.”

“What’s a Metamorphmagus?”

The one she identified as Odie, the only black teenager of the group, asked as he stared at her godson. The 8 month old’s hair went between bright yellow and brown. His eyes stayed emerald green with a golden ring around the iris. The witch was rather surprised that he remembered the word, much less managed to pronounce it. _Huh, so he’s the brains of the group._ She decided with a mental nod.

“That means that he can change his appearance from colour to bone structure. He got it from his mother, who enjoyed changing her face to that of animals.” The black headed witch smiled with sadness at the memories. Even during the dark times, Tonks has tried to lighten things up in her own way. Sometimes the young witch thought that she faked being clumsy. That she did it to get everyone to forget about the war for a moment. If that was the case, it worked, most of the time. “Teddy can only change his hair and eye colours, because he’s a baby. Even among our kind the gift is rare.”

“That’s a rather useful gift, but I don’t need it with these looks.”

The blond hero, Neil, said with an Oscar worthy smile. Heather had an awful flashback of a certain professor. She asked with horror:

“You’re not related to Gilderoy Lockhart, are you?”

“Hm… nope. I don’t know anyone by that name.”

She almost sighed out in loud relief, but didn’t. Instead, she thought, _great, I get away from one and run into another. The others won’t believe this when I’ll tell them. They might check me over for memory charms, no matter if this one is a muggle._

“Wait a second, when you say ‘your kind’, do you mean part of the God race?”

The other red head of the group, Atlanta, asked. Everyone else looked at the black headed witch for an answer. Heather shook her head.

“No, I’m not talking about my children and grandchildren. _They_ are part of the God race. In my first life, I was part of the Titan race.” A look of understanding flashed through Jay’s eyes. He was the only one that appeared to realize what she meant by that. The others just shrugged at the mistake that they made. “Once I leave this body, by natural death, I hope, I might go back to it. In this life, Teddy and I are part of a different race, but still humans. Teddy is a wizard and I’m a witch.”

Everyone sat in silence for a good minute. Heather noticed that Teddy was about to crawl out of the room after the toy. She took out her wand and casted a charm.

“ _Accio_ Teddy. _Accio_ Moony.”

Both the toy and baby zoomed back. Teddy shrieked with laughter while the wolf toy whined. The 8 month old landed in her lap, while the wolf toy, Moony, got caught in midair. She tapped her wand on it a few times, which caused the toy to freeze like the product it was supposed to be. It was handed to the child, who hugged it and cooed. He didn’t make an attempt to get out of her lap.

“You know, this is just not fair. Sometimes I think that you guys like surprising us to get some laughs. Can’t we get a book about all mythical creatures in the existence?”

The purple headed teenager of the group, Archie, asked with sarcasm. Heather smiled with humour at how unamused a lot of the teenagers were. The looks on their faces said it all, that they agreed.

“I have a lot of books about magical creatures. You can look through one of my books from school. The second one tends to bite everyone, so I won’t give it to you for safety reasons. It nearly bit me when I first got it.”

She suggested.

“You have a book that _bites_? Dude, that’s nasty.”

Neil stated with a grimace. Heather shrugged.

“You should have seen some of the other students. One of my friends, Neville, had to go to the nurse after he first tried to open it. I had to jump on a bed to get away. It got teeth and everything. The only way to open it is for you to stroke its spine.” Everyone in the room shivered, from either imagining it or from remembering. “It is not pretty, so I’m not going to give it to you. I don’t know if it’ll even react to you.”

“Wait, you go to school to become a witch?” The muscular guy of the group, Herry, asked in shock. “So what they say in religion…”

“Oh, no, of course not. Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some that go into the Dark Arts in search of demons to gain more powers.” _Actually, I’m happy that Voldemort didn’t go that route. I can only imagine the extra work we’d have gone through to get rid of him._ Heather thought with a shiver. “Every wizard and witch are born with their magic.”

“Can I look at the book?”

Odie asked with interest.

“Sure. You can keep it for a while too, if you want. Just don’t take it out of this house.” Heather waved her wand again. “ _Accio_ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

The whole group sat in silence. Even Teddy was silent, though it had more to do with having his toy’s paw in his mouth. There were bumps and even a loud bang. The teenage heroes winced at every bump. At last, the book zoomed to the witch, who caught it after it stopped right in front of her. She handed it to Odie, who sat on the couch beside her. He hesitated to open it, until the witch reassured him that this one didn’t bite. Once it was open, he flipped through the pages with a hum of interest and concentration. Atlanta that sat beside him looked over his shoulder to look as well.

“Merpeople? Dragons? Veelas?”

The black teenager voiced out some of the creatures he found. Heather winced at the memory of the first two.

“Let’s say that mermaids aren’t what you think they are. They like to stab with tridents, a lot. And dragons… best to stay away from them. I barely got out of that one alive. And I know someone who is half-Veela. She’s married to my best friend’s older brother. She’s nice, but you boys should stay away. You’ll get caught in her allure without her trying.”

“You fought against mermaids and dragons?”

Theresa asked with blinking eyes.

“Ew! What is this? I thought mermaids were beautiful.”

Neil made a disgusting look when he saw a drawing of a mermaid. Everyone rolled their eyes at him while Heather ignored the comment. She was too busy trying to get Teddy to let go of the wolf’s paw without breaking his teeth by accident. Even though he didn’t transform in the full moon, he still had some characteristics as a half-werewolf.

“Oh, come now Teddy, you need to let it go.” Teddy only pushed her hand away and continued to chew on the toy. “If your teeth are bothering you this much, at least let me know. I still have some salve that Molly gave me for you.” She sighed at another attempt failure. She answered without looking up. “The first time I met a dragon was when I was 11. I have a friend who decided it was a good idea to hide a baby dragon in his wooden house. She grew to the size of a dog in a matter of weeks. We almost didn’t get her out of there in time before she was discovered. It’s illegal to own a dragon. The second time I met a dragon was not by choice. I was forced into a tournament that took place between my school and two other magical schools. They thought it was a good idea to allow a 14 year old girl teenager to go up against dragons and mermaids. They didn’t even care that my competitors were older than me and with more knowledge.” She sighed at the memory. “We had to get a fake egg that they planted. Believe me when I say that female dragons that laid eggs are especially protective. Almost got burned alive, but at least I managed to get out of there with little injuries. I can’t say the same for the other competitors. The mermaids were the second task, after the dragons. I had to go underwater for an hour to save a friend, with magic, of course. In the end I saved two and almost drowned while at it.”

“Dude… that sucks.” Herry said with a low whistle. “Hate to go to your school.”

Heather grunted in agreement. She watched as Odie finally let go of the book and allowed the others to check it out. It was now in the hands of Jay, who sat on a wooden chair from the kitchen. Herry and Archie got up from the second couch to walk over to read over his shoulders.

“These are only two stories from many so-called adventures that I had to endure. Do you see why I don’t want you to protect me? You have other things to worry about, like protecting yourselves and each other. A-ha!” The black headed 18 years old smiled as she at last managed to get the paw out of the baby’s mouth. Teddy pouted. “Oh, don’t give me that look. Here, you can play with some blocks.”

Heather placed her godson on the ground where there were a few blocks. With a wave of a wand, she activated the magic properties. The blocks changed colours and at times showed cartoonish magical animals. Teddy clapped in excitement. His hair copied the colours.

“But the Gods said that we need to protect you.”

Theresa protested first while she accepted the book from Jay, but she didn’t look through it. All the teenagers finally gave their full attention to the Titaness slash mortal witch. The young woman shook her head and got up to stretch her legs.

“Listen, I had to deal with way more than dragons and mermaids since I was 11. You all, from what I understand, only started in this… ‘Hero Business’.” The look on her face said it all about what she thought about it. She _really_ hated the thought of teenagers being put through such dangerous experiences. “If it bothers you so much, tell the Gods to come and talk to me. Anyways, why did they drag you into this? Cronus is not an easy guy to beat. Even Zeus needed help to beat him many times. What makes the seven of you so special that the Gods picked you out of billions of people?”

_Ohhhh, I can’t believe I said it like that._ Heather thought as she seethed mentally. _But how else am I supposed to talk to them? If they have fought with the cursed version of Cronus, of course they’d see him as evil._ _I_ hate _this mind control business._ The hero group looked at each other and then at their leader, once again. The brown headed leader decided to speak for everyone.

“There’s a prophecy-”

“Oh, you got to be kidding me!” Heather groaned and slapped her forehead. “Again with the prophecies. Merlin, I thought I was done with them.” She sighed with annoyance. _At least I’m not a part of it this time around._ “Sorry, you were saying?”

“Ah… yeah… so the prophecy says that 7 heroes will defeat Cronus. We were picked because we’re descendants of great heroes.”

Heather raised an eyebrow and gave everyone a one look over.

“Descendants of great heroes? And who are your ancestors?”

“My ancestor was Jason”

Jay answered and the others followed suit. Atlanta answered with a grin:

“Atalanta”

“Hercules”

Herry said with a grin, finally having gotten his hands on the book to check it out. He didn’t really get to read much when he hovered over Jay’s shoulder, as the leader just flipped through the pages. _Wait… what?_ That _Hercules?_ The witch was once more surprised. _Who’s next?_

“Achilles”

Archie answered next as he leaned against the couch with his hands in his hoody’s pockets. Theresa told her who her ancestor was next:

“Theseus”

“Odysseus”

Odie said next, whose answer was the next one that surprised her. _Of course he would be the brains of the group. Hermione is going to flip!_

“Narcissus”

Neil said with a proud smile. Heather almost choked on her laughter that threatened to escape her. _Narcissus? He wasn’t a hero. The guy freaking died because he couldn’t leave his own reflection. I get what the others abilities could be, but this guy? What? Does he need to smile and they’d faint from being in love? Bugger it. This is like Lockhart all over again._

“Do me a favour and don’t write books.”

Heather asked of him with genuine seriousness. This confused the blond.

“Why not?”

“Trust me when I say that it won’t end well for you.”

It didn’t matter that he couldn’t cast spells. It was better to be safe than sorry. Better yet, it was best that he didn’t do it for his own health. Now that she thought about it, whatever happened to the guy? Last she heard, he was in St Mungo’s Hospital, but that was before the war. _Oh who cares? That guy almost got Ron and Ginny and I killed._

“Nice. Listen, how about I make things easier for you? If you need help with anything magic related, I’d be happy to help. In return, don’t protect me.” She started to shrink some of the toys and put them in her jean’s pockets. She did the same with the blocks, which made Teddy whine with protest. He looked up at his godmother as she picked him up. “It’s time for your nap, my little prankster. And for the rest of you, just so you know, I put runes around this building for extra protection. I also want to place the Fidelius Charm, which hides this house from everyone’s sight and memories.”

“That sounds pretty powerful”

Theresa commented with a look of surprise. She didn’t expect something like that to come from the magical world. But it made sense, in a way, when she thought about it. Archie did not look too excited.

“There’s a ‘but’ in there.”

Heather nodded.

“But I need a Secret Keeper, who will be the only one that can give out the name of this location. I’ll be talking with Athena, as she’s your head. This means that none of you will be able to utter the name of this building or give out the address. It’ll feel like the word is on the tip of your tongue. Not even a mind reader can force the information out of you, as it’ll disappear from your memories.”

“That sounds really useful, even with the disadvantages.”

Odie thought about all the information and analyzed it. Jay looked thoughtful. He asked:

“So nobody will be able to find this place?”

“No”

“Monsters?”

“No”

“Giants?”

“Nope”

“Cronus?”

“Not even my husband. They can all search all they want, but they will not find this place. That is unless they can get the information out of Athena, but they first will need to get their hands on her. When I talk with her and it’s decided, I’ll have all of you come to be given the address. Yes, even though you live here. You will forget otherwise.” Teddy started to whine louder and shuffled in her arms. Heather readjusted her grip on the grumpy baby so that he didn’t fall. “Any other questions before I go?”

“Yeah, uh…” Atlanta shuffled in her seat with discomfort. “I’ve been wondering… why did you marry Cronus?”

Heavy silent settled. The others shared her feeling but also curiosity. It almost made Heather smile, as it reminded her of her school days. Yet, she didn’t, but rather frowned. She expected the question, but to be put on the spot, in reality? No, it was harder. It didn’t matter that she rehearsed the answer in her mind after she arrived. One thing that she knew she couldn’t say was that he was cursed to act evil. The others were new to this whole thing. They didn’t have the experience to understand how strong curses work and how far they go. It was especially true when it was among the Titans and their parents, the Primordial. So there was only one answer that could be given.

“I could be honest, but you wouldn’t believe me. Let’s just say, that’s not the real him.”

Without awaiting an answer, she left with only one thought. _Well, that went better than I thought._


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, hi. I'm not dead. If I was, I'd be enjoying a drink on a beach. Unfortunately, I'm alive, and thus, I have been busy for the last two months. I'm trying my best to get these stories going. Hope you guys can stay patient with me. :) Please check my profile bio so that you guys can find my Facebook Page where I keep updates on these stories and what's going on. Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Heather was a happy young woman. Over the last few months, she studied nonstop how to read and write in Ancient Greek. The only thing between it all that forced her out of the room was Teddy. He forced her to take him outside many times. Well, forced wasn’t the right word. It was more guilt on her part that she didn’t pay attention to him as much as she should be. Another thing was that she couldn’t keep him inside the building 24/7. He needed to get fresh air at least once a day. It was not good for his development to be locked up for so long, because of her need to study. Even back in the UK she took him outside, but in secluded places where nobody could find them.

Not even the Gods, who came to visit, could get her out of there. Not unless they forced her out themselves. When they did succeed, their broken relationship started to mend. It was not enough for Heather to admit to them about her thoughts on Cronus. But it was enough that she trusted in them to help her relearn how to control her Titan powers. The powers weren’t that much. They were 1/12 of what they supposed to be, but they all guessed it was because she was in mortal form. That amount of power has made her so powerful that she needed jewelry to keep it at bay. Yet, even with the jewelry, she could do wandless magic with no trouble. That was, if she bothered to remember about them in the first place.

The heroes had found that she was great company, with her sarcastic, but helpful self. When they got stuck, she asked on the rare times she was out of her room, what was going on. They’d explain and she gave them advice. After all, she already went through something quite similar, only darker. Though, she never explained to them what she meant by that. They were almost afraid to ask, with how dark her eyes got. The group learned on the third day that she had PTSD, which made them wonder what the hell she went through. Due to that, they did their best not to surprise her or make sudden loud noises. The first and only time Herry did it, he ended up with a broken nose. He thought that she needed to lighten up, so with a stupid suggestion from Neil, he went with it. Some of the others had a bad feeling and tried to stop him, but failed. Well, his nose got fixed by the apologetic witch in the end, but it was a valuable lesson.

Even her many books on mythical creatures helped a lot. The heroes didn’t need to run to the Gods every two seconds for information on the creatures, when they had it all in a book. Not only that, but it was accurate. The one time they ended up going to them was because Cerberus escaped. The bonus they got from her being around, were the protection spells and runes she placed on the building. Now that they were active, the heroes felt like they could relax. They didn’t fear on getting attacked when they were in their home that supposed to be safe. They were even there to witness her cast the Fidelius Charm, with Athena as the Secret Keeper. It was much more powerful than they all expected, because of her sudden increase in power. But it worked. The minute they were out of the house, if anyone asked, they could not remember a thing. When need to, they could get back home to safety without a problem.

Now, to get back to the Ancient Greek language. With her memories of how everyone spoke the language, her progress sped up a lot. It was to the point that she was able to read half way through the scroll she called her journal with ease. What she found was disturbing. It appeared that her past life as Rhea, she was quite skilled in magic. It surpassed Cronus’ abilities, even though he was better in other fields. This explained her unusual ease with most magical fields. Though, she still could not for the life of her figure out Divination, and made a point to avoid it. Yet, with all the power and knowledge that she had, she wrote many times of her failures. There were two reasons for that. One was that the possible curses were endless. Ouranos was _not_ a merciful guy. In fact, he took pleasure to make the person’s life as hard as possible. He didn’t go any easier on his own wife. So it wouldn’t surprise her that he might use a spell that none of them knew. This led to the second reason, which was her lack of access to Cronus. Without her being able to test the theories out, how was she supposed to know how close she was to the cure? This led to the codes, which was why Heather was happy.

She has succeeded in breaking them.

The codes varied from potions to charms to jewelry with runes carved in them to put a stop to the dark curse. The jewelry was only temporary, but it was still there as an option. This led to her coming up with a plan. She’d need to meet up with Cronus behind everyone’s back, and when he was not under the curse. Out of the three possible routes, Heather decided that it was best to go with jewelry first. It’d buy her sometime, and take some pressure off of the teenagers’ backs. Yes, she has still not gotten over that. And so, she researched like a madwoman on the subject of runes. She even sent letters to Hermione, who sent a letter, relieved, to find out that she was alive and well. After an order to bring Teddy for his birthday party in April, she sent all her notes in Ancient Runes to Heather.

Ron received a letter from Hermione, which told him about their friend’s situation. What he did was get in contact with his eldest brother, Bill, to get information on ancient curses. The youngest male Weasley then sent the book he received to his friend all the way to Canada. The book was a copy from Bill’s personal notebook. It contained every curse that he ran into. With it, the first son of the Weasley Family attached a note. It said that if she had any questions, he’d be happy to answer. Though, he had no idea why she’d need his notes for. With the well written notes on both ends, the progress sped up. She has succeeded in creating a ring with many anti-curse runes carved inside. The runes were a mix of Bill's, Hermione’s and her past self's notes. The wife of Cronus needed something more permanent, but this would do, for now.

But today, Heather decided that it would be her day off.

Today, she was going to take Teddy to the zoo. It was for both of their pleasure, but also because her PTSD started to get out of hand. Back in the UK, when they went to secluded areas, they tend to be inhabited by magical creatures. So she tended to be more or less calm. Now, her temper shortened. She became jumpier and by accident sent a few hexes to the other inhabitants of the household. If not for their new quick reflexes, they would have been hit with some nasty hexes. Not only that, but worse of all, the nightmares bothered her. Weeks have passed since the last time she had a good night sleep.

Oh yes, Heather needed a small vacation to relax, and it’d be a nice treat for Teddy. He had never been to a zoo before. It was the perfect day to do so. It was early spring, but because they were next to an ocean, it felt like early summer. The warmth of the sun reached the earth. The trees started to turn green, though only a bit. Rather than be stuffed in several clothes to stay warm, they could throw on a jacket, put on a warming charm and leave. After she put Teddy in his newer clothes, as he grew, she got dressed as well. Once she gathered all their things along with a baby stroller, she stopped at her bedroom’s doorstep.

“Oh, almost forgot.” The witch said as she grabbed the ring and stuffed it in her jeans pocket. “In case I run into him.”

Beside the staircase, Jay and Herry stood there. The sweet descendant of Hercules wanted to help take the stroller outside, once he found out yesterday her plans. She agreed. It was not hard to shrink it, to make the trip easier down the indoor staircase. The problem was the stairs outside the house. With Teddy in her arms, she couldn’t enlarge the stroller outside in front of muggles. So Herry took the stroller without a problem and brought it outside the building, without a sweat. Jay and Heather followed close behind. Once outside, the muscular teenager put the stroller down.

“Thanks for the help, Herry.”

“No problem, have fun at the zoo.” He grinned down at Teddy. “Don’t give your godmother too much trouble, okay little buddy?”

The 11 months old baby giggled.

“Ouble, ouble.”

He babbled. _I can almost hear Sirius crying from being so proud and teasing Remus._ Heather sighed with a bit of sadness, but smiled. She placed her godson in the stroller and strapped him in. With the toy ring placed in, Teddy started to play with it. Her emerald eyes looked down at his wrist, to make sure that the bracelet she got him was still there. It was. The point for this bracelet was to stop the child from using his or her Metamorphmagus in front of muggles. At least, it was until they learned why they shouldn’t do it. It was charmed to be unbreakable and for only the guardian to be able to take it off. It was so that the child didn’t take it off at the worse time possible.

“Are you sure that you two will be fine? Cronus is still out there, and he might be searching for you.” Jay asked with a worried look, which Herry shared. “One of us can go with you.”

“Yeah, we don’t mind going.”

The other male adolescent agreed. Heather managed to not sigh again at the familiar argument.

“We will be fine, so stop worrying. I’ll have people all around me. Cronus isn’t one for a crowd, so he won’t approach me.” What she did not mention was that she counted on him being there. It was for the best. If they knew, _everyone_ , both the heroes and the Gods, would go ape shit. They’d put her under lock and key and the heroes would go back on their promise to allow her to protect herself. She did _not_ want that similar episode to happen from back to the beginning of the war. “I also have magic on my side to get out of there before he attacks.”

“But-”

“Are you-?”

“Jay, Herry, I am sure. Stop worrying. You two will get grey hair.” The trio shared a smile, two of which were sheepish. “Now, we will get going. We’ll be back before dinner.”

“I still don’t understand how you are so relaxed when Cronus is still out there. After everything he has done to you?”

Herry commented with a frown, which his friend again shared. Heather gave the two a sad smile.

“One day, you’ll understand.”

 _Voldemort has done worse to me than Cronus ever has or ever will. Eating our children was bad, but Voldemort killed my family, godfather and Teddy’s parents. He took away my friends. Even after his death, his influence almost killed Teddy. He has destroyed my childhood and education. No. When I compare everything between the two, Voldemort has done me more harm, hands down._ The witch thought as she bid her farewell to the duos and left with Teddy.

-ooOOoo-

Heather, at last, managed to get to the zoo. It was a half hour walk, but it was nothing compare to having to run from one side of Hogwarts to the other to get to class on time. She paid for her ticket, while her godson got in free. She received many dirty looks from people around her. They probably thought that she was Teddy’s mother. To be alone with him apparently made it appear worse. From some whispering, they thought she was a teenage mother, but she didn’t care. For once in a few months, the godmother could finally relax. The minute she walked into the zoo, it was as if a whole weight got pushed off her shoulders. What made it even more special, was how much her godson enjoyed his time.

Teddy refused to return to his stroller. He was content in being in her arms, as he watched the animals with a look of awe. His favourite part of the trip was the petting zoo. Heather had some food for the animals in her palm, which the zoo employees gave her. The food brought the animals closer. When they were close enough, the baby boy patted them. The first time, it almost got him bitten by a goat, because he petted the animal too hard. After Heather taught him the proper way to pet an animal, he copied her and remained gentle. His favourite animal of all them was a rabbit that seemed quite happy with him too. Heather almost imagined, in the future, someone would ask him what his favourite animal was and he’d say a rabbit.

Throughout the trip, Heather realized that they were being followed. Heather didn’t make it appear obvious when she looked to see who it was.

Cronus

The Titan hid in the shadows and kept to the less crowded areas, but still visible. His eyes were gold, which made her relax. He looked at her godson a lot, with an unpleased frown. She was lucky that his eyes didn’t turn red, yet. If they did, once they were alone, she’d need to use the strongest body bind spell that she could muster. There was also the ring, which would be needed to be put on his hand as fast as possible. But that’d need to be done only in the worst case scenario. Now, they could relax for a bit longer.

The small family of duo decided to finish the trip with a little bit of shopping. Teddy knew for sure what he wanted. He wanted the white fluffy bunny that rested in the stuff toy section.

“Here you go”

The 11 months old squealed and hugged the rabbit, which was half his size. Heather wanted to smother her cute godson in a hug.

“I’m wrapped around your little finger, aren’t I, Teddy?”

“Hea-Hea”

The child replied with big, innocent brown eyes. _Yeah, I’m definitely under his spell._ The young woman thought with amusements. She turned back to the items and gathered more things for the others back at the UK. The one person that would go _insane_ over her gifts would be Arthur Weasley. For him, she got the most muggle thing she could get her hands on. She was sure that Molly wouldn’t be amused one bit, but it was worth it. Once everything was paid for, they left the store and went somewhere secluded. There, Heather shrunk all the shopping bags and put them away. The witch took a deep breath, as she realized that it was time for lunch.

“Ready to meet Cronus?” There was no reply. Confused, she looked through the small, plastic window on the head of the stroller. She discovered that Teddy was fast asleep. His hold on his new best friend, the rabbit, loosened a bit, but still had a tight grip. “Exhausted yourself, did you? I can’t say that I blame you.”

She yawned, feeling fatigue after the literal last few sleepless nights. _Well, that’s fine. It might be best for him to sleep first, if he’s this tired. I_ know _that it won’t end well if I introduced Cronus to a cranky baby. It’d be enough for him to deal with a tired me._ Heather thought as she made her way to a nearby park. It had many trees, with a beautiful view of the sea. With the sun so high in the sky, it was the perfect time to catch a spot under a tree, before the shade changed position. Even with the perfect location, there was only one family that sat far away from the spot she has chosen. While they chose to be closer to the scenery of the sea, she took one of the trees at the back. It was in such a position that there was a scenery, but not as best as the ones up front. It didn’t matter to her. She was pleased with the chosen location.

Heather put on the breaks for the stroller then placed a big, square blanket on the ground. The minute she sat down, a figure appeared in the corner of her eyes. Her emerald eyes looked up to meet a golden pair.

“Cronus”

“Rhea” The Titan greeted back. The wife waved at the spot next to her, which he accepted. He kept looking at her godson. “Mind explaining this?”

“Only if you put this on.” Heather took out from her pocket the ring from earlier. The stone on top was an Amethyst, whose purpose was to relieve headaches. It was shaped into an oval, which resembled the ruby one that Cronus wore. The man looked skeptical of it, not making a move to grab it. “Oh stop being so paranoid. I made this to hold down the curse for the time being. The Amethyst has magic in it that is supposed to relieve you of any headaches or pains, as a side effect of the curse. So either you can accept it or I can body bin you and put it on.”

“You don’t need to get so violent.” Cronus grumbled as he accepted the ring. The moment he put the ring on his other ring finger, the monstrous headaches went away. If he didn’t have the self-control that he did, he would have sighed in relief. It was like he was back at that old house. Yet, it appeared that the relief did show, because the young woman looked smug. He stopped her from making a comment, by repeating his request. “Who is the child?”

“His name is Edward Remus Lupin, but everyone I know calls him Teddy. He’s my godson. It means that if something happens to his parents, I’m next in line to take care of him.” Her eyes darkened at the memories. She hugged her knees close to her chest in self-comfort. “They died in the war, after he was born. He has been living with his grandmother, until she was murdered before New Years’. I almost didn’t get in time to save him. He sometimes has nightmares of her death. I can’t say that I blame him, but he hasn’t been able to get much sleep lately.”

Strong fingers grabbed her chin gently to force her to look at her husband. The same hand rested on her cheek, with the thumb rubbing the dark circles.

“You haven’t been sleeping well, either.”

He murmured.

“No” She agreed, leaning her cheek against his hand. Her eyes closed as she took in the comforting warmth. “I keep dreaming of the war. That’s why we came here. Animals help me relax.”

“I can see that. You are more relaxed than I’ve seen you when you first walked in there.”

“Ah, but I am tired.”

Cronus didn’t say anything. Instead, he brought her closer to his side. Her head rested on his chest as his arm circled around her body. Fatigue became obvious, as her eyelids became heavy. Once more, his fingers brush under her eyes, which made them flutter a bit. It felt familiar, being like this. Too long it has been, since they sat this close, in comfortable silence.

“Sleep”

“I can’t.” She protested tiredly, “Teddy will wake up soon-”

“I will wake you up when the brat does. Oh don’t give me that look. I won’t touch him, I promise.”

“He’s not a brat”

Heather frowned as she opened her eyes to look up at the man. He only smirked down at her. It was clear that he was not going to take it back. Well, at least she knew that she could trust him, since he gave his promise. A promise among the divine beings was important and tied close to their pride. So there was nothing to worry about. As she was about to doze off, he commented on something else.

“You look much better without those dreadful glasses, my love.”

The witch froze. Her eyes once more snapped open and narrowed as realization sank in.

“It was you that took my glasses!”

“No, I destroyed them. Your eyes were fixed by one of the Gods, I assume.”

Cronus looked a bit too smug with that smirk. Heather scowled, wanting to wipe it right off.

“Those glasses-”

“Don’t matter. Now sleep, before I put you under a knock out spell.”

“Twat” The witch muttered, but did as she was told. The chest against her head vibrated, which brought a small grin to her face. It was like old times again. “You’re not evil. Not like what the others say. You’re… you’re not like _him_.”

With that whisper, she allowed sleep to consume her. Cronus frowned at the comment, unsure of what she meant by that. He could use his powers again to look through her memories. Yet, she wanted to tell him on her own terms, which he had to respect. Even though he didn’t like it one bit. His fingers ran through her dark black hair, feeling as relaxed as her. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he also missed this. These feelings of warmth, love and acceptance he never received from anyone else. That was one of the many things that made her so precious to him. If he had to accept the brat and the mortals she considered friends as part of her life, he’d have to tolerate it. Tolerate things, like she has through his cursed episodes.


	7. Chapter 7

March left and April came to visit. It was Teddy’s first birthday, and the plans were to celebrate it back in the UK. The duo would stay there for two weeks to catch up and then head back to Canada. During those two weeks, they’d stay at 12 Grimmauld Place. You’d think that with such basic planning, the others would relax. Nope. Both the heroes and Gods started to freak out, because they believed Cronus would get to her. They have tried their best to convince her that it was a horrible idea and to stay instead.

“You know, Teddy, it’s no wonder that I’m going crazy in this place.” Heather said as she packed her things and kept a close eye on her godson. He only started to learn how to walk, which meant that he liked to grab onto things that he shouldn’t. “Everyone is saying the same thing. You would think that they would find new excuses to hate Cronus or try to keep me safe. But it’s _always the same_.” With frustration, she threw a dark, long sleeved blue dress onto the bed. She planned to put it on before they left. She mocked the voices, “‘Cronus is out there looking for you.’, ‘Cronus ate your children’, ‘Cronus is a bad ruler. He’ll destroy humanity!’. They treat me like a naïve bimbo that can’t tell between right and left.”

Heather growled in the end. The more she had to stay in this place, the more she wanted to strangle somebody. It was the same every time she wanted to leave the dormitory.

With the group of teenagers, she was always soft on. They didn’t know everything. The group never was told anything about the curses, or, at least, the famous one. She suspected they may have an idea, but they never said anything. Jay would know for sure, as he grew up on most Greek mythology stories. The curse of Cronus losing the throne was famous. It could be argued that it passed down to Zeus, since he was told one time that he’d lose his throne. But still… the group did what they were told to do. She couldn’t be angry with them on that.

The Gods were a whole different matter. Heather did not believe that they had any excuse. They knew better than anyone to treat her in such a manner, especially after they apologized. It felt like she was back in her first life, as Rhea. She couldn’t leave the house for long, before they threw her back in. They always threw babies her way, with expectation that she’d look after them, as a ‘favour’. Not that she had much choice. Ignorance for them was bliss, until they needed something. Not to mention that if something didn’t go their way, they’d try to use manipulation. This time around they were a bit better, but Heather was still suspicious of them.

Heather took a deep breath through her nose. She breathed out through her mouth and pinched the nose in annoyance.

“I don’t like where these thoughts are going. But I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Hea-Hea”

Teddy tried to get her attention, which he got. He looked back at the base of the wooden bed, which he held on. With a look of determination, he took one step at a time to reach the other person in the room. Heather watched in awe and excitement. She kneeled down and opened her arms.

“Come on Teddy, you can do it.”

He took another step and looked up. He wasn’t that far away. Today, he decided to try something new. Slowly, he let go of the bed. His legs shook from little support. Teddy took one step, then another. Right before he got to his godmother, he fell. His green eyes turned to blue while they watered. His bottom lip pouted and quivered.

“Oh Teddy, that was amazing.” Heather praised the baby boy before he started to cry. She picked him up and gave him a big, warm hug. “I’m so proud of you for trying.” She kissed him on the cheek, which brought a small smile to his face. His eyes stopped watering and started to change back to his favourite colour. Heather sighed at the next thought. “You are growing so fast. Soon you’ll be so big that you won’t need my help anymore.” She smiled with sadness. “But I’d rather you be independent.”

With one last loving hug between the two, Heather placed Teddy for his nap. It was a bit earlier, but it was because she took into account the time differences. She didn’t doubt that the party would go until midnight. So her godson needed at least 3 naps to make it through the night. This was his second. Once she placed him down in his crib and covered him in a blanket, he kicked it off. He looked up at her with a stubborn look. Heather chuckled.

“You know, Teddy, I think you’re giving me the power of patience.”

To make her point, she put the blanket on him again. He kicked it off harder this time, turned on his stomach and tried to use the railings of the crib to get up. She didn’t bother to get angry. Heather understood that, as this was out of his usual schedule, he didn’t want to go along with it. When he finally managed to get up, his lips erupted with giggles as he bounced on his legs.

“Come on- look!” The witch grabbed his new rabbit toy and wiggled it in front of him. “Mr. Rabbit is tired and wants company.”

“Abbi-Abbi”

Teddy repeated as he reached for the rabbit. He grabbed it and fell on his bum and snuggled with the rabbit. This time, he made no protest when his godmother covered him with a blanket, again. Heather chuckled at the scene. _If not for you, I would have lost my temper long ago._ The smile vanished a bit. _But I don’t know for how long. I hope that we can leave without a commotion, but I doubt it. I’m starting to wonder if we should go hide in our house again. It feels like I’m suffocating here._ With a tired sigh, she returned to finish her packing. Once that was done, she left the room and used a locking spell on it. Teddy would be fine on his own. There was a spell placed on his crib that would alert her when he woke up. The spell was old, which Molly taught her. The old witch told her that it’d be useful, which she was right. Who needed baby monitors when you had a spell that could do a better job?

 _But what should I do with the others? I know that I wanted to wait until they had more experience to reveal what I found. But… I hated it when Dumbledore and the Order did the same to me._ Heather’s lips straightened in a thin line at the memories. _I don’t hate Dumbledore, but I would have liked it if he let me know about the prophecy before… before I lost Sirius._ Even when she only thought of her godfather, her eyes stung with tears. _I don’t want them to suffer like I did. They’re still so young. They have their whole life ahead of them. I don’t want them to lose their lives before they even started to live. Still… will they even listen? They only started, yet they are already deep in their beliefs. I don’t know what the information will do to them. Will they run to the Gods and tell them what I told them? If I was in their shoes, I know I would have done the same, only with Dumbledore. Damnit, what should I do? Do I need to turn into a Slytherin or something-?_ Heather stopped in her track at the last thought. She cupped her chin as she analyzed that one thought. What if she…? _Yes! That might work!_

The Fates must be extra nice to her today, because she ran into one of the teenagers on her way down. It was the weekend and everyone was here, except for Athena. She had some work to do.

“Archie” She greeted the teenager. “Can I ask you something?”

The purple headed teenager looked at her in confusion. Not once did he suspect that something was off. He shrugged.

“Sure, what is it?”

“What is it that you want to do after you finish school?”

The hero appeared stumped at the odd question. His mind came blank as he thought of an answer.

“I… I don’t know.” He confessed as he rubbed the back of his head. “I haven’t thought about it. Not since we started to fight Cronus.”

“Oh, that’s not good.” Heather looked at him with genuine worrisome. “What about the others? Do you know if they have any plans?”

Archie looked thoughtful. His eyes looked at her, but they appeared to be far away. She watched as slow realization flashed through his eyes, about what, she wasn’t sure.

“No… I don’t know of their future plans. Why do you ask?”

She shrugged.

“You guys are going through the same thing that I have. So I’m curious to know what you think about this whole thing. I know that I wouldn’t want to waste the rest of my life fulfilling a blasted prophecy. Not when I can find a faster way. Would you? I’m lucky to have fulfilled my prophecy before I turned 18, but I still lost a lot of loved ones to war and death. I also wasted my whole teenage years over that stupid prophecy. Trust me, I still wish to have those years back.” Heather paused in fake realization. “Merlin, I can’t believe that I’m blabbering. I’m sure you have something better to do than listen to me talk about my past.”

“Huh…?” He snapped out of his thoughts. “Uh, y-yeah, the others are expecting me on the roof. See ya later?”

“Sure”

After the two bid farewell, Archie left. A look of faraway thoughtfulness shined in his eyes. The witch continued to walk down the stairs and headed outside with a smile. _Mission accomplished. I can almost see an impressed Malfoy clapping at my attempt being a Slytherin. Now, all I need to do is kick back and wait for the influence to spread. It’s a bonus that the group is close and is open about their thoughts. It’s even better that they’re meeting up now._

“Now, to find the Oracle.”

-ooOOoo-

When Heather first heard about ‘The Oracle’, she groaned. The only thing that passed her mind was of a certain professor of Divination. She avoided the street that the heroes said he was on like the plague. She didn’t want him to predict her death every time she walked past him. Yet, the way everyone described the man, he worked for everyone and was the real deal. He predicted the present and the future on the spot, not only once or twice. All a person had to do was walk up to him and ask a question. If not a question, then they could ask for a second opinion. It was those two things that the witch wanted to do.

So she did.

“I see you finally came to see me, Rhea.”

An old, bald man with non-see through glasses said. He placed his sushi down on the newspaper stand with the chop sticks. Heather shivered and couldn’t hold back one question.

“You’re not going to predict my death every 5 seconds that I’m here, right?”

The man smirked with an all knowing look.

“I won’t do it if you don’t ask.”

Heather let out a sigh of relief.

“I hate it when a professor of mine did that to me. Every bloody class was the same thing.”

“She’s a human oracle, what do you expect? After a few prophecies, the most she can do is predict something small. That’s why divination should be left to immortals and centaurs. We don’t let the past, present and future drive us mad. But you would know that, wouldn’t you, as the wife of Cronus?”

The witch stared at him in silence with a serious expression. They were right. He was the real deal. Nobody knew of her present plans.

“I would know that. Let’s start with a simple question. What do you know?”

She spoke slowly. The Oracle shrugged. He returned the question with his own.

“What don’t I know?”

“Damnit,” She mumbled as she closed her eyes and rubbed under her nose. “This is why I don’t like being around seers. They give me a big headache.”

“I only answered your questions.”

The old man answered without offence. He expected the reaction. Heather rubbed the back of her head.

“You’re right. So let’s get straight into it.” Their eyes met. “Do you think my current plan for the heroes is a good one?”

The Oracle didn’t answer. He took his glasses off to place them on the newspaper stand. Heather stared at his eyes with interest. They were white with a misty look. His pale, skinny hands clapped. When they widened their distance, a small green ball appeared between them. The green ball was brought up to the Oracle’s eye level. The immortal stared into it and frowned.

“I was right. Your presence has put the prophecy back on track.”

Heather’s eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean by that?”

“The Gods don’t realize it, but the prophecy was never meant to be long-term, like yours was. If you have not shown up, it would have continued for at least a couple more years.” With a clenched hand, the ball disappeared. “But because you’re here, now, it will not. Your plan has put the heroes back on track, and will save them from many adventures that could end in disaster. It will also bring a brighter future, where a neutral Cronus lives on.”

“It sounds like it will work.”

“I cannot say, as it is up to you. But you are on the right track.”

Heather thought through her plans once again. The first part of the plan, she succeeded. She planted a seed into Archie’s head, to force him to think about his future. Teenagers were selfish, in nature. They wanted to live a good life before they reached adulthood. They could do it in their own ways, whether by going to parties or staying home to enjoy a good book. They never thought about their futures. At least, they never thought a few steps ahead. To make a comment on her experiences and regrets, it could force them to wake up. Phase two was for Archie to spread the idea. Phase three… she wasn’t sure yet, but there was an idea.

“Should I leave them to think about what I said for the next two weeks? If they’ll react the way I think they will, it’ll work better in my favour.”

The Oracle didn’t say anything, but the small smirk said it all. Heather nodded a bit to herself. Phase three, allow the seeds to grow. If things go according to plan, the group would want a faster way out. This meant that they’d be open to hear just about anything that might work. This would allow her to break the news of the curse to them without the previous fear that held her back right now. Now that it was out of the way, she wanted to ask something else.

“I’m sure that you know that I’m looking for a cure for Cronus. Will I find it?”

“Yes, you will, this time around.”

Small hope bloomed in her heart. A smile threatened to split her face with how big it was. Relief spread across her being. She would succeed. There was a day, in the future, where Cronus would be free of the curse.

“What is it?”

The Oracle once more created the ball. When she saw him frown, a bad feeling settled in her gut.

“I’m not going to say, as you are not ready to know it.”

 _Not ready-?! What does he mean by that?_ Heather thought with furiousness. She was this close to finding the cure, and he refused to give it to her? _Okay, Heather, calm down. Think through your experiences._ She closed her eyes and took deep, slow breaths to calm down. _He has been right so far. If he is right about this, then that means it’s something bad. It’s better to ask questions around it, rather than force it out of him. He said that I’m not_ ready _to know. This means that I won’t like the answer at all and will deny it. I will make more mistakes that will cost me something dear. No, I won’t force it out of him. It is better that I don’t know, for now._ At last, she opened her eyes, now calmer.

“Alright, but am I close to finding the cure?”

“You are. You will find it soon.” He paused. The ball no longer in his hand, and the glasses were back on his face. He grabbed his beloved sushi, before he continued. “I can see how much this is bothering you. I suggest for you to take your time to enjoy life. Take the time to get to know your husband again. Spend time with your godson, friends and those you consider family. Make new friends and allies. You will find more motivation for finding the cure, this way. Who knows, you might find it faster.”

Heather soaked the suggestion in. She knew that on the way home her mind would wonder back to this advice. Yet, there was one more thing that bothered her.

“The Gods… I don’t know what to make of them anymore.”

She admitted her feelings for the first time to someone other than Teddy. The Oracle raised a hairless eyebrow. He swallowed one of the sushi rolls.

“What brings you to such a thought?”

The witch gave a half shrug and rubbed her left elbow. These past few months, she has been far more open than she usually was. It had more so to do with the need to explain things from her point of view, but still. If her best friends back home ever found out about this, they would get so angry with her. Why was she so open to strangers unlike them? Of course, the trio opened up a lot to each other over the years. Yet, there were times when Heather still closed herself off, much to their frustrations. With the Oracle, she almost felt like he invaded her thoughts with that stare of his. Like he knew her every thought, worries, and dreams. Still, he didn’t pry things from her, like some people. It was hard not to be open to this guy, because of that last one.

“I’m sure you know how they treated me in my first life.” He only nodded as he ate another sushi. “They treat me much the same, now. They say that they’re sorry, but they don’t trust me. They help me relearn how to control my powers, but they give off the feeling of manipulation. Even when we only sit and talk, they throw in their low opinions on Cronus to have me turn my back on my husband.”

The bald immortal returned a shrug.

“That sounds much like they always have been.”

“This is why it’s driving me mad.” Heather replied with anger seeping into her voice. “They’re supposed to be my children and grandchildren. My _family_. How am I supposed to trust them when they treat me in such a manner? Will I ever have a future with them as a family?”

The Oracle didn’t answer those questions right away. With the empty plastic box and chopsticks put away, he for the third time created the green ball. He waved her over to him. Heather looked at him with hesitation, but decided to go with her gut feelings and came closer. He whispered low enough for only her ears to pick up.

“Look into this, and tell me what you think.”

Heather gave him a skeptical look, but did as she was told. Rather than the greenness fogs that she expected, something else has happened. He showed the witch her current life’s past. She watched her first Christmas at Hogwarts. Ron complained about the coloured shirt his mother knitted him, but grew excited when he saw that she got one as well. It was her first gift, which almost made her cry when she found it. That was her first Christmas, for as long as she remembered, where people cared enough for her to send her gifts. Her Weasley jumpers that she received all those years still sat in a special box back home. The visions changed in a fast pace for the rest of the years. They showed her having good times with her best friends. They showed her the way that the Weasley Family welcomed her with open arms and big warm smiles into their home. She sat at their dining table and ate together, with Molly and Ron trying to pile her plate with food. There were visions of the few times she spent with her godfather. The two of them sat, talked and laughed, like they should have all those years ago. The first time she was asked by Remus and Tonks to be Teddy’s godmother. The first time she held only a few hours old Teddy with a look of awe. He was so small, yet held so much light and hope for the future.

These memories were accompanied from her first life as Rhea, but a much younger self. There were memories of her time being spent between Gaia and Cronus. Her mother taught her everything she knew about plant magic. Her gentle ways of treating the land was passed down to her daughter. During the confusing years, before she and Cronus became a couple, her mother listened to her worries and rants. The woman gave her advice and comforting words that she needed to hear so much. There were memories with Cronus, which were held with fondness. Heather wished she could re-experience them again. They brought back old emotions, long forgotten. There were visions of how the duo learned everything they could about each other, by pushing one another’s buttons. Then the following memories they learned how to make up. Sometimes she’d pull a trick on her husband, while he took his revenge in his own harmless ways. The fun and pushing-the-boundaries friendship turned into romance, where the couple took careful steps together. They’d try some things that they never did before, like be romantic. They took care of each other and many other things along those lines.

Heather almost forgot how to breathe. Tears threatened to escape her eyes, to the point she had to turn her back to the Oracle. The witch slash Titaness didn’t have the will to brush those tears away. They weren’t tears of sadness, but of something else. They were tears of something far more precious. They were of happiness. She understood what the Oracle tried to point out. _I don’t need the Gods to have a family. I learned in this life that the smallest of things matter the most. I have a family._

“But then I’ll have to do something about the Gods.”

She whispered back, finally turning with red swollen eyes. The immortal shook his head.

“You don’t. Let things go and allow the Fates to do their jobs. If you are meant to be a family, then it’ll happen. If not, then you’re not. You are part of the Titan family, far supreme to that of the Gods. They cannot touch you, even if they wanted to. Do as you do best, live your life with your head held high.”

The walk back to the dormitory was filled with thoughtful silence. Heather’s hands were deep in her dress pants pockets, as she looked down at the ground. The visit was worth it. She learned a lot more than she expected. Her questions were answered, with a bit of frustration and happiness thrown into the mix. Yet, it was a whole lot better than she imagined it’d be. Her plans looked like they’re going to work. Her studies started to pay off, and are going to benefit her far more in the future.

Yet, what made her pause were the things that the Oracle said to her before they bid farewell. She imagined that if a seer of any kind suggested something, you’d better follow it to the letter. This made her a bit concern. This sounded like it had a connection with the cure. Was the cure really that bad? And the Gods… did she even _want_ a family with them? After being denied a family all her early childhood, young Heather would have screamed yes. Teenager Heather would have been on the fence, unsure, due to distrust. Post-War Heather was unsure, because she has a family. Her family were her best friends, Teddy, the Weasley’s and now Gaia and Cronus. Did she even want to add people to the list? Should she keep the Gods at arms-length, so to prevent heartbreak?

No, she couldn’t think about any of this too much. If she wasn’t ready to know, then it needed to be left alone. If she and the Gods weren’t meant to be a true family, then so be it. For now, she’d do what he suggested. Heather needed to enjoy life. She needed to get to know more people and relearn how to interact with Cronus. What if she one day died and returned as a Titaness? What if she didn’t spend that necessary time with her husband? What if she got to know him again? What if they rebuilt the trust they had, or make it even better than it used to be? It was better than be together but discover that it was awkward. After all, 4,000 years have passed since they so much as slept in the same bed together. With the Gods, Heather decided that it’d be best to go with the flow. That was, until she needed to put her foot down. The teenagers still needed a helping hand, to which she’d be more than happy to lend. Cronus… they needed to spend some time together. At least, enough that it’d allow them to relearn enough about one another to become comfortable once more. How she’d do it, she wasn’t sure, but it was going to happen. Yes, it was better, and that was what she planned to do.

-ooOOoo-

The minute Heather walked into the dormitory she was confronted by the hero group. _Woh… that was fast._ They didn’t appear hostile, but they looked worried and confused. Jay stepped forward and asked her:

“Hey, Heather, can we talk to you?”

The witch looked at her wrist watch and realized that it was almost time to go. The party was only in an hour and she needed to be there half of that time. With the little time she had, she needed to get both her and Teddy ready. From the lack of alarm from the spell, the baby was still asleep. This was not good. His nap was supposed to be an hour long, not two. He won’t be all too happy to be woken up. At least he got his third nap, even if it was by accident. Heather looked up at them with an apologetic look.

“I’m really sorry, but I only have half an hour to get everything ready before Teddy and I leave. If I’m late everyone will get worried. Can it wait until I get back? I know it appears long, but it’s only two weeks.”

The group hesitated and gave each other looks. Odie answered with a small smile:

“Yeah, it can wait. Have fun at the party, and stay safe.”

Everyone bid her farewell as she left to her room. After half an hour of getting both her and Teddy ready while finishing packing, they popped out of existence.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From this point on to the next few chapters I focus on the relationship between Cronus and Heather. I have tried my best to keep the personality of the characters with the situation and their relationship balanced. It was hard, but personally, I REALLY like how it turned out. Hope you guys like it too! :)

The party was in full blast. Teddy the grumpy baby turned into a happy one. His eyes twinkled with madness as he was fawned over by everyone in attendance. Heather decided to hand her godson over to Molly. Neither of the two minded it. Though, Teddy did have a moment of protest. But when he was given gifts to play with, he ignored the world with bliss. The black headed witch collapsed onto an armchair next to the fireplace. She was _exhausted_ , and it was only half way through the party. They didn’t even get into the door before everyone hugged them. They have yet to stop giving Teddy hugs, which she couldn’t fault them for. That child had the power of cuteness. Molly put her to work along with everyone, wanting the party to be perfect. Heather tried to say many times that it was. Yet, the older witch always found something off.

“It’s his first birthday!” She said. “It’s the most important birthday of all.”

“I thought every 10 years the birthdays were the most important.”

George always replied as a joke. His mother glared at him and sent him to do tasks.

Now, back to the present.

“Here is the godmother of the birthday boy.”

Ron announced with a touch of dance to his walk as he handed to her butterbeer. Heather rolled her eyes, laughed and accepted it. She watched Ron and Hermione take their seats on the couch across from her. Hermione didn’t sit still for long before she threw her arms around her female best friend again.

“I missed you!”

“Gah! Mione, this is like the fifth time.”

Heather protested through a complaint, but made no movement to push her off. She was just happy that the drink didn’t spill on them. The other witch let go and gave her a look.

“I still can’t believe you disappeared on us like that. We all thought that something bad happened to you.”

“It’s kind of hard to give you a heads up when I didn’t even know.”

“What do you mean?”

Ron asked. His eyebrows knitted in confusion. He got up to take his girlfriend back to their seat, so to not hover over their friend. Hermione’s body was straight as an arrow in anticipation. The black headed witch looked into the fire, as she remembered what happened.

“Can one of you put up a muffle spell? I don’t want the others to hear this.”

The couple looked at each other. They did not expect to be asked to do this. Still, they did it without another comment. Once it was up, it was the red headed wizard who started off the interrogation.

“What happened?”

Heather slumped against her chair and told them. She told them of her secret meetings with Cronus. How the Gods and heroes treated her. Of how they said the same thing, over and over, when it came to Cronus. What her studies were like now that her magic increased. And of the concern she held for the teenage heroes. Ron whistled.

“Blimey, mate, that’s insane. I’m surprised you didn’t blow up on them. A year ago, you would have bitten their heads off from the start.”

“This is what happens when you look after a baby.” She replied with a sour humorous smile. “But I don’t know how long I can keep this up. They’re driving me mad. Sometimes I think that I’m going to blow up the whole hideout with all the anger.”

Hermione rubbed her temples as she thought about all the information.

“Okay, let’s go through everything you said, one topic at a time. You said that you’re meeting Cronus, behind everyone’s backs. And you say that the jewelry you made for him work?”

“For the time being. The first one that I made was a ring.” Heather paused as she remembered something. “Wait, I still have it.” She grabbed her purse and dug her whole arm in there. After wiggling around for a bit, she pulled out a ring. The metal was black, with the runes burned off. The stone on top was gone, except for a few pieces. She handed it over to the duo. “He gave it back to me, saying that it exploded on him. I wanted to know your opinion on this.”

“Do you have a copy of the runes written anywhere?”

Hermione asked as she gave the ring to her boyfriend. The young man brought it close to his face to get a better look. Heather nodded and dug out the notes.

“This curse must be bad. It reminds me of the ring that we hunted down during the war. How long did this last?”

Ron asked.

“For 2 weeks.” Heather answered while she handed over the piece of paper. “I made him another ring with spells this time. The spells are supposed to protect his finger, in case it exploded again.”

“Hm…” Hermione hummed as she studied the runes and spells. “I don’t understand why it would explode. It should be doing its job. I admit that some of these runes I don’t recognize, but the rest are the right ones to use. Have you thought about dipping the jewelry in some potions?”

“I have” She admitted. “But I don’t have the resources to experiment with back at the hideout. I’m planning on doing it once I get back home. And the jewelleries are only temporary. I need something more permanent.”

“We know, you already said it.” Ron replied while he gave the ring back. “What has the jewelleries done to help him?”

“He has been calmer, had fewer headaches and even stopped trying to get rid of the group, now that his head is clearer.”

“And they still say he’s evil?” The youngest male Weasley asked in shock. “Don’t those Greek Gods have some sort of powers to be able to tell when someone is cursed?”

Heather shrugged. It was a good question, which was yes-and-no. Some of the Gods had the powers. Yet, the rest didn’t because it relied heavy on charm and Defense Against the Dark Arts specialization. Now, the question whether they know about the curse or not, was a different matter. She suspected that they didn’t, because of their unwavering opinion on the Titan.

“They treat him on the same level as Voldemort.”

“Oh please” Hermione rolled her eyes. “Have they even met the guy?”

“I know!” Heather replied with relief. Finally somebody gets it. “I keep telling them that he’s nothing compared to Voldemort. They keep bringing up that he’s evil. That he ate his own children and that he was a bad ruler and will be even worse. Look, eating your own children is bad. But it was nothing compared to the things we’ve seen in the war. And he was not a bad ruler. When he ruled, it was a time known as the Golden Age for a reason. Humans lived in peace and didn’t have to worry about the same things as we do. Sure he ruled with an iron fist, but what ruler doesn’t? At least he brought peace. Voldemort wanted to kill everyone that wasn’t a true pureblood and enslave muggles. That is billions of living beings, not counting magical creatures.”

“I know the guy is dead and everything, but I still can’t understand how you two can say his name with ease.”

Ron spoke before his girlfriend replied, with a shiver. But she did anyways, only at him with an eye roll.

“It’s because we didn’t grow up with his horror stories.”

“Give him a break, Hermione. We’re still getting over the war.”

All their eyes darkened in memory of the war. They all lost many things and gained others. Yet, they couldn’t stay stuck in the past. They had more important things to worry about right now.

“But I can see where you’re coming from, Heather.” Ron continued. “And you’re his sister and wife. You grew up together, didn’t you?” She nodded. “Then why do they doubt you?”

“Thank you!” Heather shouted, but the muffler charm toned it down quite a bit. She threw her arms in the air. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell everyone. No one is listening to me. They think I’m some weakling that needs protection all the time.”

The couple stared at her then burst out laughing. They couldn’t comprehend where they got the idea from. Heather and weak did not go into the same sentence together. She had the fiercest temper they’ve ever seen. She freaking defeated the darkest wizard of all time, twice. Drove that same wizard off multiple times. She killed a Basilisk and fought against dragons. That was _not_ weak. If anything, she has gone through more trials than the current heroes did. It made them wonder how stupid these Gods were. They understood why the teenagers couldn’t get a hint, but the Gods? Heather sat down in calm silence as she waited for them to finish. There was a debate in her head on whether she should throw a hex at them or not. Hm… before she could, they stopped.

“Mate, they need to see some of your memories.” Ron spoke with a few chuckles. “I still remember like it was yesterday when we went down to the Chamber of Secrets. I still can’t believe that the twat used a broken wand to try and erase our memories.”

“That reminds me.” Heather cut Hermione off before she spoke. “One of those teenagers that I told you about, right? His name is Neil and he’s the muggle version of Lockhart.”

The two friends didn’t say anything. No, instead, they jumped to their feet and cast spells on the black headed witch.

“Hey!”

“Found any memory charms?”

“No, you?”

“No”

“You guys” Heather groaned. “I should have known you guys would do something like this.” When she thought of it back a few months ago, it was more of a joke. She couldn’t believe that they actually went and did it. “He’s a muggle.”

“So?”

Ron asked with a blank look. Hermione tried not to smile or snicker.

“Ugh. You guys are so lucky that I like you.”

“Good to know”

The other witch commented. The trio looked at each other and shared a good, belly filled laughter. It felt good to be back home. _Now,_ this _is what a home should feel like._ Heather thought with a giant smile that made her cheeks hurt.

-ooOOoo-

Heather decided to leave Teddy with the Weasley Family, for the next few weeks. Arthur and Molly were like grandparents to Teddy, who was happy to be doted on. Yet, it wasn’t by choice that she left him. The two adults talked her into it. They noticed how tired she looked and wanted to give her a break. The only thing that they knew was that between studying, nightmares and taking care of Teddy, she got little sleep. So they put their foot down. The young woman couldn’t do anything about it. Even Teddy was reluctant to leave. For a year old baby, he was quite smart. He also missed their whole family, which she didn’t have the heart to take him away at the moment. With a defeated sigh, she kissed Teddy on the forehead. Once she gave his things to the couple, she left to 12 Grimmauld Place.

Of course, Heather made plans to pop in everyday at least once to check in on her godson. She couldn’t have him believe that she abandoned him. It was also in case there were any complications, like he had a nightmare and needed her comfort. Her Floo Network was up and running, in case there was an emergency.

So between Winky and her, the house was quiet. Heather was in her master bedroom. She sat in front of the fireplace in her night clothes. The spells that kept her scars hidden were gone. Her real skin showed underneath the pale light of the fire. Nothing occupied her hands. The witch sat with her knees to her chest. Her arms wrapped around the knees to hold them in place. Her toes wiggled in the warmth. Heather let out a soft sigh, allowing the silence to settle around her. The warmth of the fire wrapped around her, but since it died down a bit, it left her shivering from the cold. Not that she cared. There were worse things than being a bit cold.

Heather closed her eyes, and allowed her magic to spread across the room. In the corner, she felt a presence.

“Cronus, you can come out.”

He did. His tall form stepped out of the shadows, eyes golden and blank. Her emerald eyes looked at his outstretched hand. In an open palm, there rested the ring she gave him a few weeks ago. Much like the first ring, it looked like it blew up. Without a moment of hesitation, she got up and made her way to him. Once she grabbed it, with both hands, she brought it closer to her eyes to get a better look. The metal was black, but not on the inside like the last one. This meant that the spells she placed on it did its job. But the outside of the ring was only black and the crystal got obliterated from existence. Heather’s shoulders heaved down at another failed attempt.

“The curse is stronger than I thought.” She looked up at him. “Are you alright?”

“I am fine, Rhea.”

His deep voiced filled the room. His eyes didn’t look into her own, but rather at her hand. He grabbed one of her hands, which contained both her scars from second and fifth years. As the sleeves were short, the scars were in full view. Unlike before, he didn’t demand of her on the spot for answers. Instead, his thumb stroked the Basilisk scar first. It sent shivers down her spine, with no control or real reason she could come up with. Cronus turned her hand, to look at the writing on the back of it. His golden eyes brightened with further fire.

“What happened?”

Heather didn’t answer at first. Her hand grabbed his and she brought them to her bed, where they sat on the edge of it. Her fingers touched the Basilisk scar, as she told him the story behind it.

“This is from a Basilisk. I was 12 when this happened. My best friend’s younger sister got possessed by a journal. It dragged her to a secret chamber beneath our school. That chamber was left by one of the founders, who was forced to leave. As a parting gift, he left a Basilisk behind. Its eyes could alone kill anyone, but if they are seen through a reflection, the person is petrified.”

She took a deep shaky breath at the memory. While Ron could smile with humour at the memories, he didn’t have to deal with a snake like her.

“Nobody went to find the missing student, so my best friend and I took the matter into our own hands. We were angry, scared and determined. Not only was my friend’s sister taken down there, the Basilisk has petrified our other friend. So we grabbed a professor who we thought would help us and went down to the chamber. After we arrived, the professor tried to erase our memories and run for his life, but he grabbed my friend’s wand. The wand was broken, so the spell backfired on him. Unfortunately, it happened in a cave. The roof tumbled down on us, but we were unharmed. My friend stayed behind with the professor, while I was stuck on the other side. I knew that my friend would be fine. The professor forgot who he was, because of the backfired spell. So I went on ahead. In the end…”

Heather paused at the frightening memory.

“It’s… it’s hard to explain. I found Ron’s sister, but I had to destroy the journal to save her.” She wrapped her arms around herself in self-comfort. “The Basilisk was fifty feet long. I got a sword, and with it I killed it through its mouth and into its brain. _This_ is the result of a tooth sinking in. I destroyed the journal with the tooth, but I was dying because of the venom. My headmaster’s familiar, a phoenix, came in time to give me the sword. He cried onto the wound, destroying the venom. The scar never left.”

“So what you’re telling me, is that they allowed a 12 years old girl go after a fifty-foot Basilisk with a sword?”

Cronus asked with calmness, but the tone was anything but that. Heather shrugged.

“I’m used to the pain.”

“You shouldn’t be.” The Titan argued. The scarred hand was grabbed by him and brought close to him to inspect. “And this?”

“A result of a professor that didn’t like me and wanted to torture me.” Heather smiled with sourness. “It’s a long story. The short version is that she gave me a quill that wrote with one’s own blood. She used it on me many times through the year.”

Cronus became silent again. Inside, he wondered how many more scars his wife had that were hidden. He wanted to know the story of each one and kill the being or mortal behind them. He already did it with those animal-like mortals that were her relatives in this life. The memory of them made him shiver in disgust. After he killed them, he searched the small house to locate his wife’s bedroom. He discovered that she had two. One was the smallest room of the house, with locks and a small dog door on her door. The second was a cupboard under the stairs. The only thing he saw in there was a child’s messy handwriting that read _Heather’s Bedroom._ It made him wish that he took extra time to torture the husband and wife mortals. But he was sure that his eldest son would do it for him, when their life deeds were looked through. He shook his head to shake off the memories. He asked of his wife:

“How many more scars do you have?”

Heather thought for a minute then shrugged.

“A lot, but there’s always room for more.”

Her chin was grabbed and tilted in a way that her eyes were forced to meet her husband’s. His eyes blazed at the comment. Cronus growled:

“You will _not_ have any more scars, while I’m around. Is that understood?”

“But-”

“Un-der-stood?”

Heather scowled at him.

“I am not a child.”

“No you’re not, but you are acting like one right now.”

Heather bit down her comeback at the comment. He was right, much to her annoyance. She huffed.

“I don’t promise anything.”

Cronus sighed at her stubbornness, but accepted the answer, for now. The bickering between them felt nostalgic from the old days. It almost brought a smile on his face. Almost. He glanced at the clock that hung on the wall, and decided it was time to go.

“I should get going.” He let go of her chin and got up, already making his way to the middle of the room. “You need to sleep. It’s late.”

“Wait!” Heather jumped and grabbed his arm. The Titan looked down at her. Her head hung with shyness. “S-Stay with me… for the next two weeks.”

Cronus’ eyebrows knitted at the request.

“What?”

One hand let go of his arm, to brush a hair behind her ear. She whispered:

“I… I want you to stay with me… for the next two weeks. These short meetings don’t feel… enough. I-It’s been 4,000 years a-and… I miss being with you. I have only memories of a past life of us together. I… I want to re-experience them. E-Even if it’s for a few weeks.”

Cronus was stumped at the request. He didn’t expect to be asked to do something like this. He also didn’t understand why his wife was so shy with it. But she did have a point. Those short meetings weren’t enough for him, either. There was always the link between them to satisfy the need. Yet, being together was something different. Also, with that long time spend of not being together in anyway has created… a hole, he guessed. It’d be nice to do the things that they always did. Waking up to each-others sides. Taking quiet walks. Having long conversations, either filled with intelligence or bickers. Sometimes they teased the other. There were so many things that they did, which he missed. His shoulders heaved down.

“Alright” He agreed, “but only 2 weeks. I can’t leave the giants for too long, or they’ll destroy my hideout.”

His wife’s smile made him glad that he chose to say yes. It made her face lighten up and her eyes sparkle, like they did so long ago.

“Good, come on now, bedtime.”

Cronus smirked at how at ease she dragged him back to the giant bed.

“If you wanted it, just say so.”

Heather’s face turned bright red. It brought back some… ahem, flashbacks. She shoved him, but it wasn’t enough to make him so much as budge from the spot.

“I-Idiot!” She hissed. “Go find another room, pervert!”

She got into the bed with her back to him. He could see from his position the pout on her face. It made the Titan chuckle. With a snap of his fingers, his modern clothes were changed for his old black tonic from the ancient times. He got under the sheets as well, and brought his wife into his arms with her back to his chest. She tried to elbow him to him in the stomach, but it was caught without hesitation.

“Now, now, my love, no need to get violent.”

Heather stared at him then looked away with a huff. Her cheeks still dusted with a red hue. She didn’t protest this time when he brought her closer to him. Even after those comments, she knew that he wouldn’t touch her in such a way without her consent. There was also no way that she’d admit how nice it was to be in this position again. The witch snapped at him:

“I don’t kick in my sleep anymore. So your manhood is safe.”

A rumble of laughter left the Titan’s lips.

“Should I be thanking you?”

“Hm… I don’t know.” She mocked thinking. “I thought you didn’t want another episode of our wedding ni- hmp!”

Cronus covered her mouth with his hand. He hissed in her ear:

“I thought we promised never to talk about it.” Her smug look said it all, _who said I promised?_ The husband huffed and let go of her mouth, revealing a smirk. “Shut up and go to sleep.”

She snuggled further into his arms end to get comfortable, before she fell asleep with a smile. The familiarity of warmth and safety of being in his arms helped her. Cronus buried his nose into the back of her neck. Her familiar scent overridden everything else, allowing him to relax completely. With it, he was lulled to his first peaceful sleep in four millenniums. Tonight, there were no nightmares for either party.


	9. Chapter 9

The first day was not spent outside the 12 Grimmauld Place grounds. How could it, when Cronus had nothing to hold down the curse? The last thing that they wanted was for him to go all evil out of nowhere. Then there were the headaches. So Heather decided that for today, they’d spend their time at the house. The Titan didn’t mind it. He took to helping her, as he knew the Ancient Greek language fully while she still had to relearn. With his help, they finally understood what went wrong with the first two jewelleries. There was an ancient rune and a modern one that interfered with each other. They worked well on their own, but together it was a disaster. So they decided that out of the two, the ancient rune would stay, as it held more power. The modern one got taken out altogether.

“This should last a whole lot longer than the other two.”

Heather stated to no one special. The ring was in her hand with a magnifying glass lamp between it and her eyes. She bought the lamp at a muggle market, as the Wizarding World didn’t have anything like this. There were spells, of course, but they made her eyes itch. Then there were the ones for people that wore glasses. No thanks to a certain Titan, she no longer had. With a specialized knife for runes that she bought, she continued to carve into the metal. In the first two rings, there were 8 runes in total. This one had 6, with half that replaced the weaker runes. Most of the runes were ancient, found in her journal scroll. The rest got taken from both Bill’s and Hermione’s notes.

“Blast” Heather muttered when she realized her hand shook too much. She put down the equipment and rubbed her eyes. They hurt from staring for so long. “Why do runes have to be so picky? I wish I dropped Divination and taken Ancient Runes with Mione. Ron could have survived. He was better at coming up with horror stories than I ever was.”

“Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity.”

Her bloody, too-smug and smartass husband said through his smirk from the couch next to her. His eyes didn’t leave her scroll that he continued to study. It didn’t matter. Heather glared at him.

“Oh, that’s good to know. And here I thought it was the first sign of intelligence. But then again, I lost my marbles years ago.”

“Lost your marbles?”

Out of everything she said, that statement made Cronus look up. His eyebrow arched at the modern phrase. It almost made her face palm. She muttered:

“Modern mortal slash non-magical phrase.”

“Mortals have too much time on their hands if they come up with such weird phrases.”

“Dear Merlin, you and Ron must be soul brothers or something. Say something you’re not familiar with and you turn into a ‘doi?’ kind of person.”

Heather turned back to the ring with a large smirk. She felt him glare at her direction. _Pay back!_ The witch didn’t like how he viewed mortals, but it was one of the few things that never changed since they were young. To be fair, mortals were cave people back then. It was hard to view them in high standards when they had a hard time creating fire. By the time of the Golden Age, they were much better, but still not that intelligent. When Cronus got put in Tartarus, they weren’t independent, at all. So, it was hard for him to accept that mortals nowadays as intelligent and change his views. He didn’t witness the developments throughout the 4,000 years while stuck in Tartarus. He saw the outcome. For the God of Time, he didn’t get it nor did he want to. It was why Heather didn’t bother to try and correct him on it anymore. It was better to force him to act nice rather than change him. It never ended well. At least, that was what psychologists said when one was in a relationship. Well, she didn’t follow the rules all the way. She’d tease him in placement of forced change. It worked in her favour, in the end.

Heather heard a movement to her right. It was the direction that her husband sat on the couch.

Ahem, correction: it worked in her favour, half the time.

She squeaked when she got pulled out of the chair and thrown over his shoulder. The witch tried to kick, but his arms held her knees in place.

“Cronus, you better put me down!” The bastard ignored her and walked out of the study room. The scroll, ring and notes were long forgotten. Heather hit his back with no real anger behind them. They were actually quite weak from laughter. “Where are you taking me?”

“I believe that you need a break.” Cronus explained as he walked down the stairs to the first level. “Now, be good and stay quiet.”

Heather rested an elbow on his back with her chin placed in her palm. She decided to ignore his order.

“I’m a bit confused. Isn’t it usually me dragging you out of your workspace for a break?”

“Last time you did that was during my ruling.”

“Hm…” She mocked thinking. Then, she realized something off. “Wait, where are you taking me?”

“To the garden”

Cronus answered without need of further explanation. He didn’t. After they woke up and ate, Heather showed him around the house. Since he lived here for the next 2 weeks, he couldn’t be left ignorant. One of the places that she showed him was the backyard. Before she got her hands on it, the place looked dead. There were no plants aside from a tree, which looked like something that came out of a horror movie. The Victorian gazebo’s colour has long since washed away. The metal appeared rusted and ready to break at a moment’s notice. There was a small maze, which gave the impression that monsters lived in it. Well, if you counted man eating magical plants, then sure. The only thing that needed little change was the gigantic greenhouse. There were no magical plants in it, since the last living relative of this household was Sirius. Her godfather didn’t care for potions, as it reminded him of a certain snake that he bullied long ago.

When Heather saw the state of everything, she almost went into hysterics. It might be because Aunt Petunia forced her to garden since an early age. It could also be because she was Rhea. But a decision had to be made, no matter who was at fault for her reaction. The witch needed to bring in the big guns:

Neville Longbottom

Neville almost fainted when he saw the state of everything. He couldn’t believe how someone could be so cruel to nature. It almost made him want to get his hands on the people that made it turn into an uninhabitable place. So, once the duo pulled up their sleeves, they started to work. The wizard worked on the magical side of things, while Heather worked on the muggle. This meant that the maze and greenhouse was left to him. Everything else was left to the witch. They were both happy with the decision and agreed that if one finished first, they helped the other. They got to work. It took them the whole summer. Neville appeared like he lived in the household. He slept over many times after an exhausting day.

Their hard work paid off.

The walls of the maze were taken down. In their place was a huge garden of flowers of all kinds. Half of those flowers were lilies, in remembrance and honour of both Heather’s parents. The greenhouse held many different vegetation that were both magical and muggle. The magical plants were picked with a level that both knew Heather could handle. The muggle plants were vegetables such as tomatoes, herbs, onions, carrots and a whole other stuff. When she wasn’t around, it was Winky that looked after all the plants.

The tree had to be cut down. There was no chance to save it, much to the sadness of the duo. In its place were a few baby trees. The trees that were chosen were Hawthorn and Holly. The gazebo was repainted in white with a golden rooftop. They took out the circular table, as there were a few picnic tables placed next to the trees. The wooden seats that were worn out were replaced with cushions that brought comfort. They also had a few drying spells on them, to protect them from rain and snow. In the end, when all was said and done, the duo stood side by side with proud smiles.

The best part was that the spells on the house extended to the garden. Of course, there were extra spells, like an enlargement spell to provide lots of space. But who cared? It was perfect, calm and safe.

It became Heather’s favourite part of the house. She introduced it as a simple garden. Yet, it appeared that Cronus still remembered one of the things she loved the most, gardening.

At the door that led to the garden, Cronus placed her down. He led her outside, where the sun decided in a rare moment to be out with no clouds for company. The witch tried to appear still mad, with her arms crossed over her chest. But her husband knew her better and so ignored the acting. His hand rested on her lower back, as they took a walk through the giant flowerbeds. The sweet, but not overpowering, scents filled the air with ease. For the moment, Heather threw away the acting and leaned over a bit to check over the flowers. There were a few dead leafs, but everything else appeared as they should. April showers have done its job to provide plenty of water that allowed the flowers to start budding.

The couple allowed the silence to settle with comforts between them. Their bodies leaned closer to each other, without notice. Sometimes they interacted with a plant together, like picking up dead leafs or something. This time, Cronus noticed a dead flower before his wife. He knew how she’d react. With a wave of a hand, he brought it to life with whatever Geokinesis powers he had. After all, his mother was Gaia. One thing that she forced all her unimprison children to learn was Geokinesis. Rhea was one of the more successful siblings. Cronus was in the middle. He perfected the basics, but he had no desire to grow the powers. At the moment, he was glad that he perfected the basics long ago. But he put too much power behind it due to lack of use, which made the flower’s bud open a little. Cronus didn’t say anything. He only took into account what flower it was. When Heather turned to the flower’s direction, a smile spread across her face. She left the Titan’s side to rush over to the flower.

“I can’t believe it. The first flower to bloom is a lily!”

The warmth look in her eyes and how gentle she handled the flower made Cronus confused. In the past, she never had a particular favourite flower. She for sure never had such a reaction mixed with warmth. He stalked over in silence like a ghost, unsure of how to react. He didn’t need to, as Heather spoke in his place.

“My mother’s name in this life was Lily. She and my dad, James, saved my life when I was a baby.” She stood up straight. Her emerald eyes darkened at the memories. “I was born into a prophecy. I had to kill the darkest wizard of all time, before he killed me. That wizard was Voldemort. Only my headmaster, the seer and my parents knew about the prophecy. At least, that was what they thought." Her hand found its way to her husband’s. The hands gripped, but not too hard. She leaned closer to him and looked up into his ever patient eyes. It brought her confidence to continue. “But someone overhead part of the prophecy. That person was a Death Eater, part of Voldemort’s terrorist organization. They brought it to him, and he hunted my parents and I down. We managed to escape, until a traitor among us gave him our location. My parents protected me with their lives. I… I-I still have nightmares of that night.”

At this point, tears threatened to come out of her eyes. She looked away and tried to wipe them away. It was hard for her, to remember that night. Only once has she told someone about it, but it wasn’t by choice. No thanks to the dementors. The rest of the time, people were so insensitive that they’d ask her if she remembered that night. They couldn’t understand that the only memories she had of her parents was of them dying. Rather than laughter and love, all she knew was their screams of terror. The only person that understood her on some level was Neville. After all, the dementors also forced him to witness and hear of his parents being tortured to insanity.

“My dad told my mom to grab me and run. He stayed behind to fend Voldemort off, but died. My mom stood in between us, begging him to let me live. He gave her a chance to move out of the way and live, but she didn’t. She kept begging him. He killed her without a thought and turned his wand on me.” She took a deep shaky breath. “I still don’t know to this day how I killed him, when I was a little over a year old. This,” She waved at the flower lily. “is my way to honour their memories. If not for them, I wouldn’t be here.”

Every time Cronus listened to her stories of this life, he never knew what to expect. He never knew how to _react_. One minute he was livid, the next he was impressed. Whatever this war was, her life sounded like it was filled with nothing but darkness before it ended. Yet, what mattered to him was how she managed the darkness after the war. The way he saw how she lived today. The passion that she held to those she held so dear. Her attitude towards life itself. How she used that attitude to make things better for those around her. Her devotion to break the curse placed upon him, while she could have given up like before. It made him fall in love with her all over again.

It was always him that held the darkness. Even when he and his wife were deep in love, it was one of the things that they never shared. Cronus knew that she’d never understand why there was darkness inside of him. He knew that she’d never understand what it meant to have it and how it affected his day to day life. If someone asked him to pinpoint the one thing that he found undesirable in his wife, it’d be her naivety. Rhea had so much power to back her up that it made many shiver with fear. Even their children and grandchildren, to some extent, knew it too. It’d explain why they tried to keep her under lock and key for so long.

Yet, with so much power, it baffled him sometimes how naive she was at certain topics. Of course, her loving and accepting nature was what made him fall for her the first time. But at the same time, it frustrated him. Half of their arguments in the past were about his decision making skills as the ruler of the Golden Age. Those decisions were based on cold reality. Yet, she wanted him to soften them a bit, so that the poor mortals didn’t have such a hard time. It didn’t matter to her that if he did, it’d make things _worse_ for the mortals.

But there was one thing that he now regretted. In the past, one time after an argument, he made a wish that she understood where he came from. That she understood the darkness. He got what he wanted, but he never wanted her to go down this road to achieve it. Still, this time around, he saw that she finally understood. Life was hard, but the way one handled it was what mattered. Listening to this story, Cronus finally understood where it all began for his wife. He felt rare sympathy. He understood how hard it was to deal with the darkness in the beginning. It took him decades to get a good handle of things. For her, it might be sooner, with how stubborn she was this time around.

Cronus tugged on her hand and led them to the gazebo. Once he sat down, he brought his wife to his lap and held her close. Her nose buried into the crook of his neck. His scent, warmth and comfort allowed her to relax. One of his hands found its way to the back of her neck. His thumb rubbed the spot in smooth, small circles.

“Rhea, I want you to tell me about your life. I want you to tell me about the war that you took part in.”

Heather stiffened at the request. She asked with a small dose of suspicion:

“Why didn’t you use your powers to look at my memories?”

“I want you to tell me. If you will give me permission, I will use it.”

There was no way that he was going to admit to her that he already looked into her memories. Not even if it was for the sake of knowing about her childhood with that pathetic mortal family. He wasn’t suicidal. Heather sat in deep thought of whether she was ready for it or not. In the end, she admitted out loud:

“I trust you, but I don’t know if I’m ready to share my memories in such a manner.”

“I will wait”

It was all that he said. She relaxed at the acceptance. Realization sank in, when she realized how much time must have passed since morning. She sat up straight and asked:

“What time is it?”

Cronus raised an eyebrow.

“It is 5 in the evening.”

“Bugger!” Heather got off of his lap in panic. “With us being so focused on your ring, I didn’t realize time flew by so fast.”

“Are you needed somewhere?”

“Yes, I promised to come for dinner at the Weasley Manor every day for the duration of my stay. The heads of the house, Arthur and Molly, are like grandparents to Teddy. They all but adopted me at the age 11. It didn’t matter to them that I was famous. All they saw was an orphan girl that wanted to be in a loving family. I see them as another set of parents, I guess you can say. Anyways, they decided that they wanted to babysit him for the next two weeks. I’m staying for dinner and a bit after to check on Teddy. Do you want to come?”

She knew that without the ring it was a risk. But there were spells placed on the manor, close to what this house has. She was sure that it’d be fine, as long as he stayed indoors. The look on his face gave a clear answer of _no_. Heather sighed, trying to hold back the disappointment. What did she expect?

“Then I’ll see you at 8, give or take half an hour.”

Then she did something that Cronus did not expect. Heather leaned over and placed a kiss on his non-scarred cheek. The familiar gesture sent shivers down his spine and froze him in his seat. With a shy smile sent his way, she made a quick retreat back inside the house. The Titan forced his body to relax. His hand came up and brushed his black goatee, trying to figure out how to react. The feeling was still there. It tingled on his skin in a teasing manner. It was as if it wanted to remind him what happened but gave him the craving to want more. Cronus shook his head. He couldn’t allow himself to get lost in these thoughts so easily. The tall Titan stood up and walked back inside.

-ooOOoo-

Heather stumbled through her Floo Network with exhaustion. Whatever leftover energy she had, it got taken away by Teddy. The second he saw her, the baby went nuts. He babbled in her ear the whole time she was there, and refused to leave her arms. It was the reason why she arrived later than she said, at 11 in the evening. He fussed a lot, but went to sleep in the end. But then Molly didn’t want to let her go. She wanted to know every detail of how her life was so far and if she needed any advice with Teddy. That, in itself, took an extra hour. If not for the connection between her and Cronus, the Titan would have hunted her down with the thoughts that something happened. When she realized that she was going to be late, the witch sent him an apologetic emotion. He responded with calmness and patience. Of course, Heather didn’t say anything about the Greek Gods, Cronus and the teenage hero group. Yet, Molly somehow managed to get more out of her than was humanely possible. So it was of no wonder that Heather was ready to collapse on in front of the fireplace in her bedroom, the second she tumbled out of it. Cronus was in the room, only a few moments ago finished getting ready for bed. He reacted fast when he realized that she was ready to fall face first into the ground.

“Do I want to know?”

The Titan asked as he steadied his wife. She gave him a half heartfelt glare with no verbal responds. He took it as an answer and allowed her to do her business in silence. The witch grabbed her night clothes and a few other things before heading to the bathroom. Cronus rolled his eyes a bit. No, he didn’t want to know what happened. If anything, he was happy to play ignorant. Since he already did all his business, he got into bed. 10 minutes later, Heather walked out and dragged herself to the bed with a hunched form. She accepted the open space under the blanket that her husband provided her. Once she crawled in, Heather rested her head on Cronus’ chest. One of his arms wrapped around her waist. The other hand stroked her hair, which helped her relax.

“I’m tired”

Heather muttered with her eyelids half closed.

“Sleep”

She did. Soon after, Cronus followed her into the realms of dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> This is very, very important, so please read.
> 
> In this story, I'm not bashing anyone. Okay, with Cronus you can argue that I'm trying to make him appear like a good guy which is bashing, but I'm not. You'll understand the more you read my story. Anyways, I've read a lot of the Greek mythologies and have studied Ancient Greece for a whole year in university. These mythologies never held much happiness. These stories were filled with horrors, sadness, pain, jealousy and much more. It's rare when there was a happy story. Out of all stories, I recall only a handful that are happy. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to stay close to the show's characters, but there's no way to make the Gods, Titans and even freaking Gaia appear family friendly. They're not nice. They're not evil. They tend to be jealous and angry most of the time. They don't like to be proven wrong and are stubborn as fuck. When they are happy, one can breathe in relief. But most of the time, it's like walking on egg shells around them. The BEST that I can do is neutrality.


End file.
